He was consistent throughout his career in his dedication to painting landscapes en plein air i. From the age of nineteen to he worked in a Fauve style but never deviated into Cubism , and, unlike others, never found that Post-Impressionism did not fulfill his artistic needs. Claude Monet referred to him as "a surprising touch in the service of a surprising eye". Among his important works are a series of paintings of the River Seine , mostly around Rouen, and landscapes depicting places in or near Upper Normandy.
Robert Antoine Pinchon was born into an artistic and literary environment. His father, Robert Pinchon, a librarian, journalist, playwright and drama critic, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] was an intimate friend of Guy de Maupassant and also became a close protege of Gustave Flaubert. Since his son showed early signs of interest and aptitude in the arts, Robert Antoine's father purchased a box of oil paints and accompanied him on long Sunday painting walks. An photograph shows him painting at the age of twelve.
He exhibited some of his first paintings in at fourteen years of age. Two other students in his class also became well-known artists and lasting friends: Marcel Duchamp and Pierre Dumont. The art critic Charles Hilbert Dufour wrote an article in which he makes favourable mention of the entries by Pinchon, who was still only This was the beginning of a relationship that would last until In Pinchon designed the cover of a program for the Theatre Normand.
The occasion was for a play by Guy de Maupassant. The same year Robert Antoine Pinchon showed in Paris for the first time. The occasion was the Salon d'Automne 18 October to 25 November , an exhibition that witnessed the birth of Fauvism. Louis Vauxcelles coined the phrase les fauves 'the wild beasts' to describe a circle of painters exhibiting in the same room as a classical sculpture. He stated his criticism of their works by describing the sculpture as "a Donatello amongst wild beasts" Donatello chez les fauves.
On 31 September Pinchon joined the 39th Infantry Regiment. Marcel Duchamp had just finished his military service with the same regiment. At the instigation of Pierre Dumont and inspired by Othon Friesz's group called Le Cercle de l'Art Moderne, in Le Havre, the group XXX thirty was formed as a collective of independent writers, painters and sculptors from the vicinity of Rouen, [ 17 ] including Matisse , Derain , Dufy and Vlaminck contributing to the endeavor.
