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Charreton was a landscape artist in the Lyons tradition with a love of sensual impasto. In his works he seeks to capture fleeting, momentary effects, like those achieved by the Impressionists: effects at different times of day and in different seasons, such as dusk and snow. As a young man he painted the environs of Bourgoin, but his marriage in 1893 took him to Auvergne where he painted the characteristic landscapes of the region. Landscapes of Auvergne make up approximately two-thirds of his output. What became known as the School of Murols, named after a village in Auvergne, was principally formed around him between 1910 and 1925. Skilled in capturing minute changes in the weather, he was also adept at capturing the spirit of new places. Beside his native Dauphiné and his adopted Auvergne, he was also charmed by the landscapes of the Île-de-France and Paris – Montmartre, the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Parc Montsouris – and also Provence, Creuse and Brittany. However, no trace has been found of his trips abroad. It would be a misjudgment to think that he only painted pretty picture-postcard scenes in the regions he visited; on the contrary, he would seek out the intimist qualities of a place, choosing perhaps a quiet hamlet, with a humble bridge over an anonymous stretch of water, or an ordinary tree outside a tumbledown house. He would paint blazing autumn landscapes, with a sumptuous colour palette, but also favoured snowy scenes, their exact chromatic opposite. At the start of his career he would paint dusky scenes and contre-jours in halftones and misty sunsets. As his artistic development progressed, he attached more and more importance to light and colour. In this respect his work follows on from that of Ravier and, like Guillaumin, it is almost a precursor to Fauvism, or alternatively can be regarded as complicit with it, like the work of Maurice Marinot. His brushwork evolved in tandem with his use of colour, which became ever more vibrant; for example his fondness for purple hues and later his striking colour contrasts. His brushwork became more conspicuous and he would suppress the insignificant details in order to bring out the forms that made up the general composition.
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