Edouard-georges Mac Avoy (1905-1991) Bordeaux Painter "bouquet Of Wallflowers" 1976- Oil 71x55

Edouard-Georges MAC AVOY (Bordeaux 1905 – Saint-Tropez 1991) "Bouquet aux giroflées" (1976) Oil on canvas signed lower left H: 71 cm x 55 cm Biography of Edouard-Georges MAC AVOY (Bordeaux 1905 – Saint-Tropez 1991): Descended through his father from an old Irish family, emigrated to France, Édouard-Georges Mac Avoy was born in Bordeaux-Caudéran on January 25, 1905. Raised in Switzerland until his baccalaureate, Mac Avoy hesitated between the theater for which he was very gifted, and painting for which he was hardly. It was painting that won out, and Mac Avoy entered the studio of Paul Albert Laurens at the Académie Julian at the age of 18. Laurens's intelligent and subtle teaching brought him a lot in terms of form. At the age of nineteen, a still life of fruit was acquired by the State at the Salon d'Automne, and Mac Avoy thus entered the Musée du Luxembourg. From then on, Mac Avoy painted landscapes and cities for nearly ten years: Chartres, Rouen, and Avignon. Did he still have a nostalgia for the "character" from his theatrical inclinations? Was it a lucid choice, noting that the portrait was completely out of fashion, and that in the panorama of post-war painting, the figure was no longer of interest except as a plastic pretext? The fact remains that Mac Avoy decided to devote himself to portraiture, completely against the grain of the time. This was followed by a long series of portraits, most of which were presented at the Salon d'Automne, starting with the Portrait of W. Somerset Maugham. Édouard Herriot wrote of him: "our era has found its Philippe de Champaigne." Throughout his career, Mac-Avoy painted portraits of numerous figures from the arts, literature, politics, and religion, including André Gide, Pierre Larousse, Honegger, Mauriac, Picasso, de Gaulle, Béjart, Ionesco, Cocteau, Chagall, Rubinstein, Dali, Kennedy, Pope John XXIII, and Johnny Hallyday. In addition to portraits, Mac-Avoy painted landscapes, still lifes, and colorful floral arrangements. Mac-Avoy was president of the Salon d'Automne for over thirty years, until his death in 1991. His Parisian studio was located at 102 rue du Cherche-Midi, in the 6th arrondissement, where a plaque commemorates him.