Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of shipbuilders and sea captains.

During the last thirty years of his life, he painted in a style completely removed from that of his earlier colleagues and his contemporaries.

Having abandoned the lively arabesques and brilliant colors of his Fauve years, Friesz returned to the more sober palette he had learned in Le Havre from his professor Charles Lhuillier and to an early admiration for Poussin, Chardin, and Corot.

He painted in a manner that respected Cézanne's ideas of logical composition, simple tonality, solidity of volume, and distinct separation of planes.

A faint baroque flavor adds vigor to his (most well-known) landscapes, still lifes, and figure paintings.