Watercolor By Camille Hilaire

Young Woman by Camille HILAIRE 1916 - 2004 - Watercolor signed lower right depicting a young woman seen from behind. Dimensions 40 x 36 cm - framed 60 x 54 cm Camille Hilaire was born in 1916 in Metz during the German annexation2. Coming from a modest background, he first became a house painter, then began to draw and paint on location. In 1934, he married Anne-Marie Reslinger with whom he had a daughter, Jeannine. At that time, he frequented the city library to copy Holbein and Dürer. His work was noticed by Jean Giono and Nicolas Untersteller (future director of the Beaux-Arts in Paris) who welcomed him into his painting studio in Metz. There Hilaire met the city's governor, General de Sainte-Croix, who intervened so that he could perform his military service in Paris. Shortly after, Camille Hilaire was mobilized and bravely participated in the French campaign, at the end of which he was taken prisoner. He escaped and reached Paris in early 1941. In 1942, he married Simone Jance for the second time. Not wanting to be forcibly incorporated into the German army as an Alsatian-Lorrainer, he chose to go underground and enrolled under a false name, Leblanc, at the Beaux-Arts de Paris during the years of the Occupation, studying under Nicolas Untersteller and Maurice Brianchon while attending the academy of André Lhote, with whom he became friends. A young admirer of Albrecht Dürer, who would influence his sure and incisive style, and marked by the luminosity of the Italian masters, Camille Hilaire began to exhibit at the various Parisian Salons. In 1947, Hilaire was appointed professor of drawing and decorative composition at the École nationale supérieure d'art de Nancy, a position he held until 1958. He competed for the Prix de Rome in 1950 and won the 2nd Grand Prix. Continuing his artistic research, he tried new techniques, watercolor, stained glass, and tapestry. He was appointed professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris in 1958. His profession (he then created models for the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres) allowed him to travel and exhibit. Hilaire nourished his talent with these travels, throughout the century, his painted or woven work expressing their beauty and diversity, from Venice to Normandy, which he particularly loved, from Le Havre to Thionville. He died in his property located in Fourges, in Eure (Normandy) and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery (Metz) in 20042. Family From his union with Simone Jance-Hilaire, Camille Hilaire has four children: Christiane, Pascale, Claude, painter known as Hastaire, and Florence, painter known as Cantié-Kramer. Work Alternating between post-cubism and figuration, his works with bright colors are luminous. Camille Hilaire represented the nuanced expression of composition. Thus, starting from effective structures, he held power through color and obtained an admirable and constant sensation of calm, breadth, grandeur by translating the patterns and elements, which never prevented him from expressing a burning passion for creation and sharing. Remarkable were his nudes with perfect curves, nestled charmingly and placed in an environment where their sensual fullness imposed itself with provocative grace. As for the landscapes, Hilaire knew how to dictate their structure without apparent constraint, giving them that fresh and piquant green that often characterized him. Thus, nature and the elements became a pretext where the artist pushed the color until he achieved the felt effect. As for the tapestries, all his craft as a graphic designer and his will to research merged into splendid works that constantly solicit the gaze thanks to their technical success of pure harmony and which represented the artist just as well as his lithographs, of an astonishing achievement.