Paul Elie Dubois (1886-1949)

The youth with the chèche

Beautiful and Luminous oil/carton

20 x 24 cm

Excellent condition signed lower left

Sold with its frame

The Artist:

Paul Élie Dubois (Montbéliard 1886 - Colombier-Châtelot 1949)

French painter attached to the School of Algiers.

Peintre Voyageur

Paul-Élie Dubois apprenticed at the Académie Julian and then at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris

Student of Jean-Paul Laurens and Fernand Cormon2.
He remained attached to drawing throughout his career despite breaking away from academic art.

However, he was on the bangs of 20th-century trends, enriching himself with the works of modern artists and immersing himself in them. Paul-Élie Dubois prioritized light and color in his painting.

His growing talent and perseverance won him recognition from his peers and critics alike. From then on, he lived from his painting.

Paul Élie Dubois exhibited with French artists as early as 1908 with a portrait of a Comtois peasant. In 1911, he received an honorable mention for a portrait entitled Jeanne.

In 1912, the French State acquired his canvas harmonie en blanc, and he exhibited again in 1913, La robe rose and les ramasseurs de bois l'hiver, followed by printemps2 in 1914.

During World War 1, he painted a large composition entitled deuil, which won him a silver medal, the Prix Thirion and a travel grant at the 1920 Salon des Artistes Français. That same year, he left for a two-year stay at the Villa And-El-Tif in Algiers.

Paul-Elie Dubois would never again detach himself from this country, where he experienced the most exhilarating years of his career. In his own words, in Algeria he would have the "revelation of light".

His return was a great success. In 1922, he won a gold medal at the Salon for his painting of Arab women in the El-Kettar cemetery, which was then entered as a hors-concours. In 1923, the Institute also awarded him a prize, as did the Conseil Supérieur des Beaux-Arts, which awarded him its national prize for Arab musicians and peace in the light.

In 1926, the salon received the blanc cortère, a carpet market and Marrakech (Morocco). He also exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries a series of canvases brought back from his trip to Morocco.
He was an ethnographic painter who took part in numerous missions to the Hoggar in particular from 1928 onwards, focusing on the lives of the Tuaregs, the blue men of the desert.

At the Salon des Tuileries in 1930, he scored a triumph, presenting almost 400 works that aroused the interest of critics and the enthusiasm of the public. He is awarded the distinction of "ambassador of the Hoggar"
He exhibits at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, the 1935 Brussels International Exhibition, the 1937 Paris Universal Exhibition and the 1939 New York Universal Exhibition.

His works are held at the Musée du Luxembourg, the Petit-Palais, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Algiers, the Musée National Zabana in Oran, the Musée National du Bardo, the Musée des Années Trente in Boulogne-Billancourt, the museums of Montbeliard, Besançon, Luxeuil-Les-Bains, Voiron and Narbonne, among others.

Awards:
Prix Thiron (1920). Abd-El-Tif Prize (1920). Prix national des Beaux-Arts (1923). Grand prix Arts artistique de l'Algérie (1927). Prix Dumoulin pour l'Algérie, Salon de 1935.