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General First namePaul Louis
LastnameBaignères
GenderMale
CountryFrance
Date of birth1869-11-14
Place of birthParis, France
Date of death1945-10-07
Place of deathFontainebleau, Île-de-France, France


About

There is evidence to suggest that the future painter Paul Baignères was the P. Baignères who in 1891 took part in what is now considered by some observers as the first edition of the French National Championships. He finished runner-up in the men’s singles event in that year. Like a number of early players, including George Brosselin, Paul Baignères attended the prestigious Lycée Condorcet secondary school in Paris and came from a wealthy background. He did not take part in many lawn tennis tournaments, but neither did many of his contemporaries.
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The following piece was translated and slightly adapted from the original Wikipedia article in French, which can be accessed here: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baign%C3%A8res

Paul Louis Baignères was born in Paris in November 1869, the son of Arthur Baignères (1834-1913), a man of letters and art critic, and Charlotte Baignères (née Borel), who had her own salon. Paul Baignères is the nephew of Laure Baignères, who also had her own salon, and the first cousin of Jacques Baignères, a friend of Marcel Proust.

Like Proust and Jacques Baignères, Paul studied at the Lycée Condorcet, a top secondary school in Paris, and as a young man wanted to be a painter. His mother encouraged him to study for the entrance examination to the prestigious École Polytechnique in Paris, but he made little effort to do so. Instead he studied with the artists Léon Bonnat and Henri Gervex, and at this time also met Maxime Dethomas (with whom he would later work as an interior designer), Ignacio Zuloaga and Gustave Leheutre.

Baignères was subsequently accepted into Gustave Moreau’s studio at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Higher School of Fine Arts) in Paris, where he befriended Henri Evenepoel and Georges Rouault, and where Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet and Simon Bussy were among his classmates.

In 1914, Baignères enlisted with the French Army and was later awarded the Legion of Honour and the Croix de guerre (War Cross).

Paul Baignères painted portraits and landscapes, as well as genre scenes. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d’Automne. He illustrated several books and had a good reputation as an interior designer.

In 1900, Paul Baignères married Jeanne Marie Alice Isabelle Henriette Stieldorff (1877-1928), who was also a native of Paris. Together they had one son, Jean Baignères (1902-1982) who, after having been an executive in various companies, opened a small art gallery in 1944 at 142 Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris. Jean Baignères later sold this gallery and organized exhibitions in various European countries and elsewhere, including New York.

Media


Archive statistics Career1891 - 1907
Tournament wins0
Matches4
Match wins2


Tournaments Paris International Championships - 1907 French National Championships - 1891