French painter, illustrator and printmaker. After studying at the
Ecole des Jésuites, he entered the Lycée Carnot in Paris in 1939.
His antipathy to academic study led to his expulsion in 1943, in
which year he attended an evening class in drawing. In December 1943
he gained a place at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
in Paris, working in the studio of Eugène Narbonne (b 1885). On
leaving the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1945 he travelled to Brittany
with his mother, but after her sudden death he returned to Paris,
where he devoted himself to painting. He then moved to
Massy-Palaiseau, just south of Paris, to work with his friend Robert
Mantienne, a French painter, and painted the Deposition from the
Cross (c. 1945; Paris, Pompidou). This early work, with its
restrained grey-toned colours and gaunt, anxious human figures,
already bears many of the hallmarks of his later painting; both in
spirit and colouring it shows the influence of Francis Gruber. In
1946 he met the writer Pierre Descargues, who became one of his
earliest and most ardent supporters, writing the catalogue preface
for his first one-man show in 1947.
Clown
1999
Discuss Art
Please note: site admin does not answer any questions. This is our readers discussion only.
