Drawing By Marcel Gromaire

Marcel GROMAIRE 1892 - 1971Seated nude woman with a pearl necklace Indian ink on paper - signature stamp at the bottom right is in the painter's handCertificate of the presidency 31.5cm x 24cm Marcel Gromaire (born July 24, 1892 in Noyelles-sur-Sambre and died April 11, 1971 in Paris) was a French painter, engraver, decorator, illustrator and cartoonist. Born in Noyelles-sur-Sambre in the Nord department (near Maroilles), to a French father and a Flemish mother, Marcel Gromaire began his schooling in Douai, then in Paris, where his father taught at the Lycée Buffon, passed his baccalaureate in law, quickly abandoned the legal career and began in 1910 to attend some workshops in Montparnasse. He did his military service in Lille and, mobilized during the First World War, spent six years in the army. He was injured in the left testicle in 1916 in the Somme. Back in Paris, he set up his studio at 20, rue Delambre and was the film critic for Crapouillot. He met Maurice Girardin[5] who, for ten years, would buy his entire production by contract. In 1925, he moved to no. 3 Villa Seurat in the 14th arrondissement of Paris and continued to write his personal notes, which he would keep until the end of his life (Peinture 1921-1939 published in 1980 by Denoël). At no. 4 lived Jean Lurçat, a place that would become the architectural laboratory of the "Montparnos" between the two wars. He exhibited La Guerre at the Salon des Indépendants in 1925. He was a professor at the opening of Studio B of the Scandinavian Academy. In 1933, the retrospective was held at the Kunsthalle Basel, which was a consecration. He received commissions from the State in 1937 for the Paris International Exhibition. During the war, from 1939 to 1944, he lived in Aubusson in the Creuse region. He participated in the tapestry revival movement alongside Jean Lurçat. In 1947, he had his first exhibition at Louis Carré. In 1950, he was appointed professor at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, a position he left in 1962. In 1950, he traveled to the United States as a member of the jury for the Carnegie Prize, which was awarded that year to Jacques Villon. This same prize was awarded to him in 1952. In 1954, Marcel Gromaire set up his studio at 47 rue Sarrette, a few steps from the Villa Seurat. He lived and worked there until his death in 1971. Like Rouault and Dufy, Marcel Gromaire worked outside of groups and trends. A friend of Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger in his youth, he was nevertheless "nobody's student." He created his own style, which cannot be confused with any other. A style that combines a powerful lyrical breath with a taste for geometric construction. He invented a realism that freed itself from rules and reflected somewhat the inspiration of the Romanesque or Gothic primitives. "He constructs his nudes like cathedrals and treats skyscrapers like theorems," it was written. He was recognized very early on by galleries and museums: Pierre Matisse exhibited him at the inauguration of his New York gallery in 1931. From 1947 to 1956, he exhibited at the Galerie Louis Carré in Paris. In 1963 a retrospective was dedicated to him at the Musée National d'Art Moderne and then in 1980, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Doctor Girardin, who regularly bought his paintings, bequeathed his collection, around a hundred works, to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Gromaire painted a little over seven hundred canvases, with an average of ten per year. Decoration Commander of the Legion of Honor (1954) Distinctions 1956: National Guggenheim Prize