Georges Duthuit

Georges Duthuit (1891–1973) was a French writer, art critic, and scholar, and one of the older members of the Parisian critical circle, occupying a singular position within postwar Parisian intellectual life. He is known for his work on modern art and for his close association with Henri Matisse, whose daughter Marguerite he married. He was a key commentator on Matisse, Nicolas de Staël, and Jean-Paul Riopelle.

He contributed to the intellectual and critical discourse of twentieth-century art through essays and publications, including the journal transition, the bilingual literary and arts journal founded by Eugène Jolas and Maria McDonald Jolas, where he served as co-editor.

Trained as a Byzantinist, Duthuit brought a deep historical perspective to his engagement with contemporary art. By the time American painters began arriving in Paris after the Second World War, he was already an established intellectual presence. Fluent in English and having spent the war years in the United States, he moved easily between French and American cultural contexts, becoming an important point of contact for younger artists.

One of the most notable examples of the livre d’artiste is Une fête en Cimmérie, Duthuit’s collaboration with Matisse, published by Tériade in 1963, for which Matisse executed thirty original lithographs.

Duthuit occupied a singular position within postwar Parisian intellectual life, situated at the intersection of literary, artistic, and theatrical networks. He maintained a wide-ranging circle that included Samuel Beckett, Bram van Velde, André Masson, Alberto Giacometti, Patrick Waldberg, and Pierre Schneider. He was known for his regular gatherings at the Café des Trois Marronniers, as well as for hosting informal salons at his residence, where artists, writers, and critics engaged in ongoing dialogue.