Louis Mathieu Verdilhan moved to Marseilles at a very young age and briefly attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His brother, André Verdilhan, was also an accomplished painter. Louis Mathieu’s friend Antoine Bourdelle, who regarded his work highly, called him Le Mathieu. He was also close to Suares, Marcel Brion, Louis Audibert, Albert Marquet, Doucet and Robert Rey, who dedicated a preface to him. Despite loosing his left eye, he continued to paint. Verdilhan adhered briefly to Fauvism, having previously been influenced by the Impressionists. He was of a generous temperament and the coloured violence and vigour of Fauvism enabled Verdilhan to express his own feelings whilst depicting the same stunning landscapes that Cézanne had painted. He distilled the subject, or its nature into a few essential lines. He retained Cézanne’s classical organisation of the composition in a way also used by Emile Othon-Friesz, Albert Marquet and Maurice de Vlaminck. Indeed, Marquet’s influence gave him a strong preference for using pale outlines surrounding blocks of colour. He first exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants in 1910. He first showed his works at a solo exhibition in 1900 at the Galerie Braun in Marseilles, which was followed by the exhibitions at the Galerie La Licorne in Paris in 1922 and the Kraushaar Gallery in New York in 1923. Retrospectives of his work were held at the Musée d’Art in Toulon in 1950 and 1967.