Frédéric Zeller (1912-2003), The Tree In Winter, 1948, Indian Ink And Wash On Paper

Frédéric ZELLER (1912-2003)
The Tree in Winter, 1948
Indian ink and wash on paper
Signed “Fred Zeller-K.” and dated “1948” lower left
35 x 45 cm
Provenance: artist's family
Original frame with some marks and imperfections

Born in Paris in 1912, Frédéric Zeller grew up in a family of dramatic artists. He took an early interest in drawing and joined the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in 1930. While a student, he actively participated in the demonstrations in the Latin Quarter as an activist with the socialist youth. Close to Leon Trotsky, he was one of the founding members of the Jeunesses socialistes révolutionnaires in 1935. The artist who signed “Fred Zeller” was in constant contact with André Breton's group of surrealists, with whom he became friends. He collaborated on the illustration of numerous left-wing magazines before being mobilized in 1939 and joining the resistance the following year. At the end of the Second World War, his political commitment coexisted fully with his vocation as a painter. He exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1946 before retiring the following year to Sarth, in Saint-Denis-d'Orques on the edge of the forest. He remained there for a year then moved to the Côte d'Azur in 1948. The landscape in Indian ink and wash dated 1948 that we present was created during this period outside the city. However, it remains difficult to place. It is an original work in the known corpus of the artist. Frédéric Zeller devoted most of his life to painting, a committed painting that struck the imagination and proved to be a reflection of his intellectual preoccupations. A painting that shakes the viewer to the edge of surrealism and fantasy. The artist exhibits throughout Europe and the United States.