Portrait Of A Man By Myrto Debard 20th Century

Subject: portrait of a MauritanianSupport: oil on panelFrame dimensions: 75 x 65 cmPainting dimensions: 61 x 50 cmCondition: good conditionPeriod: 20th centurySigned lower leftBorn on May 18, 1900 in Trescléoux, a small village in the Hautes-Alpes where her father was a pastor, Myrto Debard showed a real artistic temperament at a very young age. Supported by a family atmosphere where painting, music and poetry were part of daily life.In 1913, her father was called to Algeria where he settled with his wife and his two youngest twin daughters, Lili and Myrto.It was therefore at the School of Fine Arts in Algiers that Myrto Debard began her studies; There she was a student of Léon Cauvy and at that time met the sculptor Paul Belmondo with whom she formed a strong friendship. A scholarship holder at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, she worked for five years at the Atelier Lucien Simon, then with Othon Friez. She married Pastor Marcel Debard in 1925 and shortly after the young couple embarked for Lesotho where their two children were born. In 1934, Pastor Debard was called to Dakar to exercise his ministry there. He settled there with his family. Myrto Debard then undertook a series of journeys which took her to Niger, Mali and Mauritania, where she met “the blue men” whose nobility and mystery seduced her and who would mark all her work. From then on, she would meet them regularly, in the heart of the desert under the tents, in the familiar setting of the Bible and would be able to express their secret soul on canvas. In 1947, forced for health reasons to abandon his ministry, Pastor Debard retired to Gorée, a small island opposite Dakar. Myrto revived the old house with its bougainvillea-lined arcades and set up her studio there. Her travels, which she continued for nearly thirty more years, led her to discover Casamance, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Upper Volta, where she constantly renewed her inspiration. However, she kept a secret preference for the men of the desert, of whom she remained the great painter. From 1937 to 1983, more than fifty exhibitions in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Bamako, Abidjan, and Nouakchott, and each year in Dakar and then in Gorée, punctuated the artist's career. She died in Paris on October 30, 1983.