Louis George Bouché Muralist and Artist (March 18, 1896

Louis George Bouché Muralist and Artist (March 18, 1896 – August 7, 1969)

The short story on Bouché is compelling. Louis George Bouché was born in NYC, raised in Paris, studied at the Lysée Calneux, Academy Colorossi, and the Grande Chaumiere. He went on to study at the Art Students League of New York in 1915, with Dimitri Romanovsky and Frank Vincent DuMond. In 1920s he curated an art gallery in Wanamaker's department store and then went on to be one of the top artists of his generation.

Whereas, little is known of him today, his work is in about 20 major museums, including: The Los Angeles County Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, The Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum. His gallery dealer was Kraushaar Galleries in New York where they had at least 13 one-person exhibits of his work. These exhibits lasted from 1936 to 1970.

Beyond being an artist he worked as an art instructor for both the Art Students’ League and the National Academy of Design. He was a member of the prestigious National Institute of Arts and Letter, serving as Vice President in 1957. He had awards from: The Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Carol Beck Gold Medal), The Metropolitan Museum - “Artists for Victory” prize, so on and so on. Still today, one of Bouché’s paintings, Spring in the Park, engages in international diplomacy by being in the US State Department’s Art in Embassy Collection.

Bouche was an “artist’s artist” whose career spanned almost fifty years. Below we will look at one his major works that is not in a public collection:

“Roadside Gossip”

“Roadside Gossip” was painted near Bouché’s home in Chatham, NY and he used local young people to serve as models without preliminary sketches. This is documented in a letter to Lawrence Fleischman dated November 18, 1959, now at the Archives of American Art. Fleishman purchased the painting from Kraushaar. Fleischman(1925-1997) was a power-house collector and art dealer, known as one of America’s foremost art experts. He was the Chairman and CEO of Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan, as well as he bankrolled numerous projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and British Museum.

“Roadside Gossip” was a favorite of Bouché’s and was exhibited in two major shows: The 1952 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art and a one-person show at the Albany Institute of History and Art, 1963. The painting was sold by Christie's Auction House in 1994, where it went into the hands of Georgetown arts and antiques dealer in Washington, DC. It was purchased from the DC dealer in 1996.

The painting is oil on canvas, 20 X 26 inches in a thick rustic wooden frame.

Signature Detail

Painting Detail

Another Painting Detail

Exhibit Tag from the Albany Institute of History and Art

©2022. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists and art movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The photos and blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #waller-yoblonskyblogspot #walleryoblonskyblogspot #louisbouche #louisboucheartist

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