Pierre Combet-descombes (1885-1956), Female Nude From Behind, Circa 1930

Pierre Combet-Descombes (1885-1956)
Female Nude from Behind, circa 1930
Charcoal and pastel on cardboard
Signed lower right
59 × 39 cm
Frame 70 × 50 cm

Born in Lyon in 1885, Pierre Combet-Descombes received brief training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, which he entered in 1902. He quickly turned away from formal teaching and presented his first works at the Salon in 1905.

A leading figure of the Lyon artistic avant-garde, Pierre Combet-Descombes was among the founders of the collective Les Ziniars: self-proclaimed ignoramuses who rejected academic teaching. They exerted a real influence on the artistic life of the interwar period and contributed to the emergence of modern art in Lyon. Judging the Salon d'Automne too timid, they created the Salon du Sud-Est in 1925, where they displayed their work alongside that of artists active on the Parisian scene, such as Henri Matisse and Paul Signac.

A champion of modernity, Pierre Combet-Descombes nevertheless proved reluctant to abandon figurative art. Drawing inspiration from reality, his work explored various themes, among which the female body predominated. The female nude, subjected to all manner of excess, haunted his early work (the period to which this print belongs) before the artist found a more serene expression.

He celebrated the female nude throughout his oeuvre (paintings, murals, illustrations), attributing to it allegorical functions, oscillating “from the celebration of the Virgin with the lily to the dismemberment of the prostitute.”* He created expressionist work by distorting reality in such a way as to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. He stylizes and perverts the bodies of his models, captured in suggestive, even erotic poses. Our drawing bears witness to a feverish line that runs over the voluptuous curves of the bodies he depicts.

*Jean-Jacques Lerrant, Homage to Pierre Combet-Descombes, Fiftieth anniversary of the death of the founder of the Salon du Sud-Est, 2016.