Henri Poey (1910-1998), Mask, Circa 1930, Charcoal On Paper

Henri POEY (1910-1998)
Mask, circa 1930
Charcoal on paper
Pasted on cardboard
Signed lower left
22.5 x 21.5 cm
cadre 30 x 30 cm
Old traces of folds in the length and width of the sheet (see photos)

Few biographical elements have come down to us on this artist. He is listed among the painters active in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th century where he lived in the 1930s at 133 rue de Clignancourt. He took the painting course of Paul-Albert Laurens (1870-1934), eldest son of Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921), who trained first-rate painters, notably at the Académie Julian.

Henri Poey exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1934 a work entitled Le Printemps. It is a rural scene comprising several characters and whose “drawing is particularly remarkable”*.

He has illustrated an alphabet book widely distributed from 1944: Renée Verplancken, Alphabetical Images, First Easy Readings, Lille, Nisse publisher, 1944.

*The Arts in Paris - The Salon VI, L'Est républicain, June 7, 1934, p.6, by Nejac.