Albert Coste

Born in Marseille on November 8, 1895, Albert Coste studied both at the Beaux-Arts school and the city conservatory, where he trained seriously in music. After an accident in 1916 led to the amputation of two fingers, he gave up the path of becoming a professional cellist and devoted himself fully to painting.

He continued his training in Paris in the studio of Fernand Cormon and also learned painting restoration. Around 1919, he met Maurice Denis and received guidance through the Ateliers d'Art Sacré, an experience that helped shape his early development. His work later evolved from post-Cézanne and Nabi-influenced painting toward abstraction, and his friendship with Albert Gleizes in the 1940s became especially important in that shift.

Coste also had a lasting role as a teacher in Aix-en-Provence. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts there in 1935 and later created its painting studio. Remembered as a technically gifted and deeply cultured artist, he kept painting, music, and poetry closely connected throughout his life until his death in Marseille on August 22, 1985.