Louis Labro-Font was born in Paris in 1881, the century of the great painters. Paris, the City of Light, was the revolving center of the greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. His parents wanted him to become an architect, exactly like his contemporary, Paul Signac. Consequently, he pursued architectural studies in Paris and earned a State Diploma.

However, at the same time he was driven to paint and so, happened to be noticed by some of the greatest painters of the time while painting classical views of Paris, such as the banks of the Seine and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, as did Guillaumin, Signac, Pissarro, Seurat and so many others. At that time he developed a close relationship with Manzana Pissarro, also a talented painter, the son of Camille Pissarro.

Labro-Font’s architectural training gave a precise, methodical approach to his painting. In this vein he studied the division of light into its colored elements. Then, when he set up his easel in the magical places of Paris, he spent hours observing the changes I light at various times of day and during different seasons. After a time, he longed to broaden his horizons, as the various Parisian scenes no longer satisfied him. As was the fashion of his painter friends, he explored the outskirts of the capital, and even farther, into Normandy, seeking new vistas to paint. He created dark and magnificent aquarelles, bringing to mind those of the celebrated Turner.

With the passing of time his palette became clearer in order to better reproduce the atmosphere’s fluidity, as well as to capture the coloring of the shadows and reflected light. He ceased to use the heavy and dull colors. As his personality became more assertive, he transformed his technique, which by then was attuned with the technique of the masters, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley.

Like Monet, he worked extensively in Rouen and left us magnificent paintings of the Cathedral, of the old cobbled streets, as well as of the port and its surrounding. His friends, Martel, Seyssaud, Signac, Pissarro, arranged for the purchase of 50 of his works by the capital’s greatest art gallery. As to that he was not particularly concerned, for he was not business minded. He was an artist and an authentic one. E made good income as an architect and, thanks to that work, he succeeded in not living in poverty, as did so many of his artist contemporaries.

He pursued his work as an architect for the City of Paris, while, at the same time, being approached for his paintings by the greatest art dealers of the time, such as Ambroise Vollard, who sought simultaneously to acquire paintings from Labro-Font’s fellow painter, Rene Seyssaud. Both refused the interesting offers, as well as contracts, feeling that their independence was the best of contracts. They sought neither glory nor wealth and thus, displayed their works in independent shows.

Little by little, Louis Labro-Font journeyed farther from Paris, moving to the South of France, where his research on light took him to Marseilles and to the Vaucluse region, where he reached the zenith of his talent.

There he achieved the dream of every impressionist and post-impressionist painter. He found in the surrounding nature of colors and light corresponding to his palette. It was in the neighborhood of Valreas, in the Vaucluse region, that he permanently settled down and where he completed his most beautiful works. The sunny hillsides, the hay stacks that were so dearly cherished by the impressionist great masters, the village squares shaded by palm trees, and the country fairs are among the subjects wonderfully treated by him. E was so meticulous and so methodical that he wrote on the back of practically every one of his works the time of the day when it had been painted, so that he might continue at the same time on the following day, fearing that otherwise the light would fail him. This is why we find, in his own handwriting, all the details of the date and the moment of the day he commenced and finished each particular work of art.

He painted very beautiful landscapes in the Drome region, for whenever he traveled he always carried his palette, his tubes of paints, his brushes for oil paintings, and also paper and gouache for his aquarelles. Louis Labro-Font was an unrivaled aquarellist. It is generally in an aquarelle that one can recognize the genuine talent of an artist, for aquarelles do not permit fault and do not stand mediocrity. The first version must be excellent or nothing will be. In Labro-Font’s case, we have the proof before us that he was exceptionally precise, thorough and wonderfully talented. His aquarelles, which were justly praised, were very much in demand among the collectors.

Louis Labro-Font was a complete artist, who managed to create a personal style by drawing from the construction systems of a synthetic composition established after Cezanne. While numerous painters, whose intentions he shared, showed rigor somewhat bordering on austerity, Labro-Font wanted to show himself as friendly, but without conceding to frivolity, as he possessed the gift of grace.

This marvelous painter, whose works sang with the accents of Provence, was a great admirer of such writers as Alphonse Daudet and Marcel Pagnol, who also made Provence sing in their writing. This same South of France, which inspired so many of the world’s greatest artists, rendered a tribute to Louis Labro-Font with a major retrospective of his work celebrating the centenary of his birth. It was held in Simiane Castle, in Valreas in July, August and September of 1981.

In 1948, four years before his death, the renowned art critic of his time, Marcel E. Grancher, wrote that Louis Labro-Font "shall indisputably reach celebrity within fifty years, providing he consents to it!"

Now, more than forty years later, Louis Labro-Font’s heirs have made available a large collection of his finest works. A number of both oils and aquarelles are being prepared for a museum tour throughout the United States.

Louis Labro-Font died in 1952, in his beloved Vaucluse region, which he portrayed so beautifully in his paintings.