Son of a clothier from Lodève, Eugène Lagare attended school in Montpellier, where he showed a real aptitude for drawing very early on. At eighteen, he left to study for his baccalaureate in Paris, where he met the painter Pierre Auguste Cot, a family friend from Bédarieux. At the same time, he worked in the studio of the painter Diogene Maillart, bonding with his son Roger, also a painter. In 1892, upon the death of his father, Eugène Lagare gave up taking over the family sheet factory and remained in Paris to devote himself to painting. He joined Gustave Moreau's workshop at the École des Beaux-arts, where he rubbed shoulders with Matisse and Rouault, before gradually moving towards sculpture. He is forced to carry out decorative work to meet his needs and to support his mother, who has