Rodolphe Caillaux (1904 – 1989) "the Birthday Bouquet" - Basque Country - Oil/canvas , 46x38 Cm

Rodolphe CAILLAUX (1904 – 1989) "The Birthday Bouquet" Oil on canvas, signed lower left, titled on the reverse H: 46 cm W: 38 cm Artist's biography: Rodolphe Caillaux, born in 1904 in Paris and died in 1989 in Fontenay-lès-Briis, was a French Expressionist painter of the School of Paris. After the war, he was a leading figure in an Expressionism highly representative of figurative art in the 1950s. Famous for his bouquets of flowers and landscapes with vibrant colors, bold lines, and accentuated forms, Caillaux stood out as a champion of figurative art at the end of his life, with his vivid palette and thick layers of oil paint applied with a palette knife or trowel, as illustrated by this painting. A frequent visitor to the Basque Country, which he often painted, he also designed the Maurice Ravel medal for the Paris Mint. A street in Saint-Jean-de-Luz bears his name. After performing in music hall one-man shows, Rodolphe Caillaux made his debut as a painter at the Salon des Indépendants in 1928, alongside Alexander Calder, Otto Freundlich, Jean Hélion, Georges Papazoff, and Joaquín Torres-García. He entered the Salon d'Automne in 1932. With the outbreak of war, he moved to Pau in 1940, where he helped organize the Béarn Autumn Salon. He returned to Paris in 1947. Living at the Cité Montmartre-aux-Artistes at 189 Rue Ordener, Rodolphe Caillaux nevertheless remained close to Pau, having been inducted as a dignitary into the Royal Jurançon Winegrowers' Guild in 1953. Elected that same year to the Committee of the Salon des Indépendants, he served as its vice-president from 1955 to 1956. From 1957, he led a group at the Salon Comparaisons, eventually succeeding Andrée Bordeaux-Le Pecq as its president. It was in his capacity as president of the Salon Comparaisons that he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor. Rodolphe Caillaux was a member of the Salon d'Automne in 1957 and Honorary President of the Salon Comparaisons. A large painting by Rodolphe Caillaux, "The Basque Dancers," is on display at the Basque Museum and the History Museum of Bayonne.