Gustave Fayet
Gustave Fayet was closely related to artists and particularly to Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon.
Born in Béziers on the 20th of May 1865 in a family of land-owners, he died in Carcassonne on the 24th of sept 1925. Fayet was brought up surrounded by artists as both his father Gabriel Fayet and his uncle Léon Fayet were excellent painters.
He was himself an excellent painter with a strong, personal and original style before becoming a collector and museum curator. His paintings were close to ''symbolism'' in opposition to the period’s academic, romantic or impressionist style.
As a collector he gathered almost a hundred paintings by Gauguin and several Degas, Manet, Pissarro, Redon and Picasso. He was one of the first collectors of Paul Gauguin and his collection has been shown in many retrospective exhibitions.
1901 Fayet becomes curator of the Béziers Museum.
1908 He buys with his wife Madeleine Fayet, the Abbey of Fontfroide near Narbonne, Aude, in Southern France where they settle with their family in order to restore the place. The major restorations will take 10 years and Fontfroide becomes a special place where artists and celebrities meet.
Gustave Fayet asks Redon to decorate the Library. Redon will proceed by painting two large murals ''Night'' and ''Day '' in a very elegant symbolist style ; the murals represent family members. He also calls on Richard Burgsthal, glass master and painter, to restore the glass windows of the Church.
Fayet’s productive and exuberant artwork has essentially remained in the family, but is also shown at the Hotel Fayet in Béziers as well as at the Abbey of Fontfroide in a special section dedicated to his tapestries, ceramics, drawings, watercolors and paintings. Two recent retrospective exhibitions of his work as a painter and a drawing artist have taken place in the Musée Terrus, in Elne, Oriental Pyrenees.
Gustave Fayet, well known as an artist and art collector, was also a well established land owner and a passionate wine grower.
He was the only descendant of a large family of merchants who ruled the Canal du Midi since the XVIIIth century.
His father Gabriel and his uncle Léon were the children of Antoine Fayet and Gabrielle Azaïs, wealthy landowners.
By his marriage with Magdeleine d’Andoque de Sériège, they became the two most important families of the Languedoc as builders and wine growers with estates as: Védhilan, Sériège and Grange Madame, Milhau, Canet, La Dragonne, Les Jardins de Notre Dame and the Seigneurie of Peyrat.
Born in Béziers on the 20th of May 1865 in a family of land-owners, he died in Carcassonne on the 24th of sept 1925. Fayet was brought up surrounded by artists as both his father Gabriel Fayet and his uncle Léon Fayet were excellent painters.
He was himself an excellent painter with a strong, personal and original style before becoming a collector and museum curator. His paintings were close to ''symbolism'' in opposition to the period’s academic, romantic or impressionist style.
As a collector he gathered almost a hundred paintings by Gauguin and several Degas, Manet, Pissarro, Redon and Picasso. He was one of the first collectors of Paul Gauguin and his collection has been shown in many retrospective exhibitions.
1901 Fayet becomes curator of the Béziers Museum.
1908 He buys with his wife Madeleine Fayet, the Abbey of Fontfroide near Narbonne, Aude, in Southern France where they settle with their family in order to restore the place. The major restorations will take 10 years and Fontfroide becomes a special place where artists and celebrities meet.
Gustave Fayet asks Redon to decorate the Library. Redon will proceed by painting two large murals ''Night'' and ''Day '' in a very elegant symbolist style ; the murals represent family members. He also calls on Richard Burgsthal, glass master and painter, to restore the glass windows of the Church.
Fayet’s productive and exuberant artwork has essentially remained in the family, but is also shown at the Hotel Fayet in Béziers as well as at the Abbey of Fontfroide in a special section dedicated to his tapestries, ceramics, drawings, watercolors and paintings. Two recent retrospective exhibitions of his work as a painter and a drawing artist have taken place in the Musée Terrus, in Elne, Oriental Pyrenees.
Gustave Fayet, well known as an artist and art collector, was also a well established land owner and a passionate wine grower.
His father Gabriel and his uncle Léon were the children of Antoine Fayet and Gabrielle Azaïs, wealthy landowners.
By his marriage with Magdeleine d’Andoque de Sériège, they became the two most important families of the Languedoc as builders and wine growers with estates as: Védhilan, Sériège and Grange Madame, Milhau, Canet, La Dragonne, Les Jardins de Notre Dame and the Seigneurie of Peyrat.
