Pierre De Berroeta (1914-2004) Paris - Quai De l'Hôtel De Ville -

Pierre DE BERROETA (1914-2004) Oil on canvas signed

Oil on canvas by Pierre de Berroeta representing a carriage on the quay of the town hall in Paris and in the background we can see the Saint Gervais church.

This oil on canvas is signed lower left is presented in a beautiful period frame.

Without the frame, the canvas alone
measures 46 x 55 centimeters.

With the frame the dimensions: 73 x 62 centimeters

Biography:

Pierre Ambroise de BERROETA was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris on April 1, 1914, to Jacques Alfred de Berroeta and Marthe Tinel his wife.
Alfred, an industrialist, traded with Argentina in the field of goldsmithing, but was especially passionate about art and collected the works of those who have become famous today. Did this influence the young son?
Still, Pierre, from a very young age, showed a great interest in drawing and colors. Alongside his studies at the Pasteur high school in Neuilly, Pierre received drawing lessons from Madame Sampigny and painting and wood engraving lessons from the painter Clément Cerveau.
Received at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris in May 1933, he worked under the direction of André Dewambez, then Charles Guérin. Massier then great massier of painters, he met another student there, Marguerite Barboteu known as "Guichoune", whom he later married. Logist to compete for the Prix de Rome, he was betrayed by his teacher Charles Guérin, who did not support him and did not even sit on the jury to mark his opposition to the institution. As soon as he entered the Beaux Arts, the School exhibited his works which were noticed by critics.
Called up for military service on April 15, 1935, Pierre de Berroeta carried out his military service in Alsace at Oberhoffen (Bas Rhin), in the 20th train squadron; Always an artist, he decorated the regiment's refectory with a fresco and designed its badge. Released in September 1936, he resumed his studies at the Beaux Arts. Mobilized in Nancy on August 24, 1939, assigned to road regulation then to the 172nd engineering battalion, he was almost immediately taken prisoner and sent to Stalag IIc in Greifswald in Pomerania on the Baltic.
The officer commanding the stalag seeing his drawings on various sheets, recognized his gift and gave him paper, pencils, ink and colors, so that he could draw... Parisian monuments and life at the stalag. Pierre de Berroeta had the right to keep one drawing for every twenty given to the Germans; the Army Museum keeps some of them marked with the “stalag IIc” seal. Thanks to the camp doctor and two friends who he kept throughout his life, he set up a subterfuge in order to be able to return to France; he had lost 40kg!
Returning in June 1941, he married Marguerite Suzanne Charlotte Barboteu in September at the town hall of Neuilly-sur-Seine and at the Saint-Ferdinand-des-Ternes church. A prolific artist and tireless worker, he participated in three exhibitions at the end of the year. Then the exhibitions followed one another: Salon d'Automne, Page gallery in Bayonne, Groupe Artistique de Saint-Nazaire, Daricarrère gallery in Biarritz; he is figurative, he loves the circus, he exhibits works with the Bouglione brothers at the Cirque d'Hiver for "Les Amis du cirque" which will be noticed. June 5, 1943: birth of Marie Laure, only daughter of Pierre and Guichoune. Guichoune's parents reside in Argentina, the couple decides to leave for this Latin American country, where it seems, a certain fame precedes them since the press announces the arrival of the two artists while they are still on Atlantic.
The landscapes, the colors, the faces of Indians, the native animals, will enrich the palette of Pierre de Berroeta; he will exhibit in the largest galleries, painting portraits of personalities from Argentinian high society but also gauchos and Native Americans.
Trips to France will allow him to introduce his fellow citizens to this distant country which nevertheless lives in European time; he became one, if not the most recognized painter of Argentina