André Barbier

BARBIER André (1883-1970) André Georges Alfred Barbier was born in Arras on January 24, 1883, on rue du Marché-au-filet, in the Cathedral district, into a family of notables (his father was director of the Mont de Piété). He obtained a first prize in piano at the age of eight, and became fascinated by astronomy and later by photography, two passions that he would maintain with easel painting. In 1903, he moved to Paris and exhibited four paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. The year 1906 marked the beginning of his friendship with the painter Claude Monet, then 66 years old, a meeting that was organized by the art critic Gustave Geffroy. He wrote: "Gifted as you are, with this rare perception that you have of the planes and the distances, of this air vapor so light that you know how to capture on your paintings, it is not possible that you do not appear as one of the true artists of your generation...". A sincere friendship between the two painters was to develop, described by correspondence and numerous visits to the studio in Giverny. An anecdote recalls that it was André Barbier, an astronomy enthusiast, who suggested to Claude Monet that he adopt Zeiss lenses to correct the eyesight problems he was experiencing at the end of his life.