Victor Prouvé (1858-1943), Panther Study, Pencil On Paper

Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
Study of a seated panther
Pencil on paper
37 x 25.5 cm
Provenance: collection Marianne Prouvé-Georges (1905-1994), daughter of the artist, then by descent

Major figure of the School of Nancy , Victor Prouvé is the father of architect and designer Jean Prouvé. A multidisciplinary artist, he is above all a painter and draftsman but also devotes himself to engraving, sculpture, illustration and the art of bookbinding. Victor Prouvé received his first drawing training in Nancy from 1873 and 1877 before joining the School of Fine Arts in Paris in Alexandre Cabanel's studio. He exhibited at the Salon from 1885 where his submissions were particularly well received. Victor Prouvé became friends with the master glassmaker Émile Gallé for whom he designed decorations for glassware and furniture which were notably exhibited at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He thus produced a fruitful body of work punctuated by public commissions and collaborations with emblematic Art Nouveau artists and craftsmen such as Louis Majorelle, Eugène Vallin and the Daum brothers. Very attached to his hometown, Victor Prouvé was one of the founding members of the Ecole de Nancy in 1901, of which he took over the presidency in 1904 on the death of Emile Gallé. He also directed the Nancy School of Fine Arts from 1919 to 1940. The pencil drawing that we offer is a study of a panther from the collection of Marianne Prouvé-Georges (1905-1994), the artist's daughter.