Drawing By Gaston Hoffmann - Illustration Project For 'conte à Ma Fine'

Gaston HOFFMANN (Paris 1883 – 1977 Metz) A light floating noise, a growing murmur – illustration project for “Conte à ma fine”, a poem from “Secrètes chansons” by the Marquis d’Aigneaux black pencil, red chalk and white gouache highlights on tracing paper 15.5 x 12.8 cm; 24 x 31 cm (with the original mount) signed 'Gaston Hoffmann' lower right; annotated 'Conte à ma fine - a light floating noise, a growing murmur' on the mat Gaston Hoffmann trained as an artist with Léon Bonnat, Jules Lefebvre and Luc Olivier Merson. From 1905, he exhibited at the Salon des artistes français as well as at the Salon des humoristes (an event which took place in Paris between 1907 and 1968), where he presented several caricatures. He was a member of the Society of French Artists from 1909. A multidisciplinary artist, he collaborated with the Charles Schneider glassworks, the Sèvres factory and produced large murals such as the one on the Noyon town hall. In the 1940s, he devoted himself to illustration, which allowed him to fancifully draw a world in which dreams and fantasies intertwined, in a spirit that always oscillated between symbolism and surrealism. Our drawing belongs to a set of illustrations produced for a poetry collection project by the Marquis d'Aigneaux, from the knightly nobility of Normandy. Entitled "Secret Songs", the work offers an eclectic collection of poems including "Tale to my fine". The correspondence between the two men allows us to date this production around the years 1926-1927.