“the Hollyhocks” Pierre Vaillant (1878 - 1939)

Pierre Vaillant, born in Paris on January 30, 1878 and died in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) on May 8, 1939, was a French painter and engraver. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studios of Jean-Léon Gérôme and Marcel Baschet. He was also a student of Ferdinand Humbert. After school, he discovered Brittany where he met the painter Charles Cottet and became his friend and disciple. He often returned to his adopted country and more specifically to Camaret, which inspired his paintings, and became known as a painter in the region. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1905 to 1913. A drawing of his "Peasant Woman and Child of Sainte-Anne-la-Palud" is preserved in Paris at the Musée national d'art moderne. In his studio in Montparnasse, Pierre Vaillant produced a series of portraits and nudes appreciated by critics. One of them earned him the Cottet Prize in 1930. The same year, he was appointed professor at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière in Paris. For several years, he devoted himself to the education of young artists, including Amrita Sher-Gil. The State acquired his "Portrait of a Russian Woman." He also exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des Tuileries. Pierre Vaillant was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1937, and that same year received the highest distinction at the Universal Exhibition for his painting "Child in a Tent." Pierre Vaillant was a friend of artists such as Albert Besnard, René Prinet, Edmond Aman-Jean, Marcel Louis Sauvaige, and Maurice Denis. Oil on cardboard signed lower right, titled on the back, perhaps in Brittany? Size: 41 x 33 cm With frame: 57 x 49 cm