Bouquet Of Flowers By Robert Coutelas, 60 Galerie Romanet

Subject: Bouquet of flowers. Support: Oil on wood. Dimensions: 54 x 42.5 cm. Condition: Good condition, see photos. Period: Dated 1960. Signed lower right. Robert Coutelas (1930-1985) was a French painter and sculptor with a unique career. Born in Paris, he had a difficult childhood, marked by war and displacement. After various manual jobs—stonemason, factory worker, then student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon—he settled in Paris in 1957, where he led a precarious life entirely dedicated to art. Winner of the Othon-Friesz Prize in 1959, he nevertheless quickly broke with galleries, refusing the compromises of the art market. From 1959 to 1961, he was a resident artist at the Galerie Romanet, which provided him with a studio on rue du Cardinal Lemoine. During this period, the Romanet gallery exhibited works by Le Pho, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Derain, Modigliani, Vlaminck, Chagall, and Picabia. From the late 1960s onward, in his small studio on the rue de Vaugirard, he created his most personal works: Mes Nuits (My Nights), thousands of small painted cards, and Mes Ancêtres (My Ancestors), gouaches on cardboard and salvaged posters. His work, often compared to Art Brut, is characterized by a somber, symbolic, and deeply intimate poetry. Having deliberately remained on the margins, Coutelas only achieved recognition after his death in 1985. His work is now celebrated for its intensity, originality, and the radical freedom that guided him throughout his life.