Paul Rebeyrolle,

A masterpiece from the first period of the painter Paul Rebeyrolle, one of the most important representatives of "Expressionism" in France.

At the end of the Second World War, driven by his desire to paint, Paul Rebeyrolle joined a movement of young artists, giving birth to "L'Homme témoin de son temps"  also named " La Jeune peinture".
Wanting to oppose abstract art, they expressed through figurative works, all the violence and suffering experienced with the breath and hope of a life, as the light appears finally at the end of a tunnel.
Characteristic of these works were the hues, often a chord of black, gray, white and ochre, occasionally interspersed with a bright color. But their expressive strengths came from the line, raw, incisive, essential, an outline with dark lines representing nature, landscapes, also interior scenes, but above all the human, the man or woman in the midst of these settings, as witnessed by this powerful expressive painting from 1949: "Jeune femme dans un café".

Paul Rebeyrolle was born on November 3, 1926 in Eymoutiers (Haute-Vienne) and died on February 7, 2005 in Boudreville (Côte-d'Or).
He arrived in Paris in October 1944 and joined the "L'Homme témoin" manifesto, which at the end of the Second World War, around art critic Jean Bouret, advocated a return to realism against the trends of contemporary art.
In 1949, the year he married Simone Dat, he moved into "La Ruche" at 2 passage de Dantzig. 
(Date and address cited on the back of the painting)

After preliminary admirations for the Impressionists and Cubists, the 1945 Soutine exhibition in Paris was a revelation to him: "I understood that Soutine was my painter".

He began participating in group exhibitions in 1945 at the traditional annual Salons, with the painters of the "L'homme Témoin" manifesto and the "Jeune peinture" Salons, which he chaired for a time.
1957 Sâo Paulo Biennale,
1963 Buenos Aires, International Painting Prize of the Torcuato di Tella Institute,
1967 Cuba....

Personal exhibitions
1951 Drouant-David
1954 London Marlborough Fine arts Gallery
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1962 galerie André Schoeller
1964 New-York Marlborough Gerson Gallery
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1970-1971..1973-1974-1976 Galerie Maeght
1968-1978 Galeries Nationales du grand Palais
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1994 Paris double exhibition galerie Daniel Templon et Daniel Lelong
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2004-2007-2013 galerie Claude Bernard
2007 The Hague Museum of Art
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2015 Astrup-Fearnley Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo
...

At the end of the 50s, he attempted an operation of reconciliation between his deep sense of reality and abstract plastic reasoning. He rebalanced himself by firmly grounding harsh reality and what he wished to say to the face of the world in a plastic formulation where fragments torn from reality and non-significant plastic interventions were now combined.

In 1967, his major Paris exhibition, "Les instruments du Peintre" marked a new stage in his evolution.
The use of heterogeneous materials in his works: dirt, piles of tactile matter, handprints, glued paper, color powder sprays, lichens, mushrooms, bird feathers, even clods of earth and, a few years later, the insertion of straw, wire mesh, beams and stones, show the freedom of expression of Paul Rebeyrolle to always develop his art.

Paul Rebeyrolle (1926-2005) painter, sculptor, lithographer
"Jeune femme dans un café"
Oil on canvas, in perfect condition, signed and dated "Rebeyrolle 49" top left, titled, address, date and signature on the back on the chassis : "Jeune femme dans un café" "Rebeyrolle -1949" "2 Passage Dantzig PARIS XV" .
Size : 31,9 x 25,6 Inches without frame and 39,4 x 33 Inches with its ceruse wood frame.