At age of sixteen, he attended a commercial school and began an evening course at the school of fine arts in Marseilles. So rapid was his success that he was able to finance his studies with awards he won in his first painting competition.
Camoin specialised in many areas, including the painting of beautiful still lifes with intense colouration and simple figurative designs in a variety of formats. His first exhibition, held when he was twenty-five, was put on at Bert Weill in Paris and he also exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from 1905.
Camoin’s career was highly successful and he received the ultimate French artistic accolade when he became an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in 1955. Major exhibitions of his work were held in 1931 at the Museum of Rouen, in 1952 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, in Chicago in 1960 and in 1961 in New York.
Camoin died in Paris in May 1965.
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