Jules Alfred Giess (1901-1973) - Female Nude 1937 - Oil On Canvas - Prix De Rome

Born in 1901 in Morschwiller-le-Bas in Alsace, Jules Alfred Giess learned to draw from his childhood, thanks to evening classes at the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse. Posted to Versailles at the end of his military service, he continued his training at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs.

In 1924, he joined the studio of Jean-Paul Laurens at the Beaux-Arts de Paris in Paris. Winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1929, he took his family to Italy, then to Spain where he was a resident of the Casa Velasquez in 1934 and 1935. President of the jury of the Salon in 1937, he decorated the thermal pavilion built for the Universal Exhibition with a large fresco. From 1957, he also held the position of curator of the Jean-Jacques Henner Museum. His international reputation is attested by the universality of his exhibitions: at the Wildenstein Gallery in New York in 1962, in Munich in 1963, in Zurich in 1968 and as far away as Japan.