Biography
1897 : Birth of Elise Rieuf in Massiac, Cantal.
1915 : Elise Rieuf attends Clermont-Ferrand School of Fine Arts.
1918 : Paris. Elise Rieuf registers at the Lacaze Academy to become an art teacher. There, she meets Marguerite Jeanne Carpentier. She becomes a faithful adept of Carpentier’s workshop in Auteuil, where young female artists work. It is the birth of the first school of art for women artists.
1923-1930 : Elise Rieuf marries Paul Veyseyrre, an architect in Shanghai (Léonard and Veysseyre agency). Léonard and Veysseyre have just achieved the French Sporting Club in Shanghai, today the Okusa hotel entrance hall. Elise Rieuf leaves for China, just after her wedding. She exhibits in the Shanghai Art Club until 1930, when she parts from her husband and comes back to France, bringing back about 40 pictures, which are among the best of Massiac museum.
1930-1940 : Elise teaches in Charleville, Aurillac, Lyon, Saint Cloud and then in Paris, at the Molière grammar school.
She never ceases to paint, whether during her travels around Europe, her stays in Auvergne or in her workshop.
1940-1942 : Composition of La Leçon des maîtres
1960-1985 : Elise Rieuf settles in Aix-en-Provence. She lives many happy days devoted to painting and reading. She is the center of a circle of friends, intellectuals and artists.
1986-1990 : Elise Rieuf ends her days in Massiac. In spite of her great age, her correspondence and her last sketching books attest of her intact intellectual vigor.