Roger Derieux - The Masons - Gouache - About 1955 - Authentication Stamp
Artist: Roger Deyrieux (1922 – 2015, France)
Nouvelle Ecole de Paris
ROGER DÉRIEUX (Paris, 1922 - Castelnau-Montratier/Pern, Lot, 2015)
Les Maçons
Vers 1955
Gouache on paper
12 × 16 cm (on view)
Black acrylic frame with white mat; 25 × 30 cm (framed).
Unsigned on front.
On verso: blue identification stamp "Roger Dérieux", with autograph signature of Béatrice Peyret-Vignals (artist's legatee), certifying the authenticity of the work dated January 23, 2026; stamp of the Artenchères studio sale, Lyon, April 30, 2026.
Set against a background of khaki and blue tones characteristic of Dérieux's palette, the composition animates a construction site: on the left, a massive, synthetic figure, rendered in a cream solid surrounded by black, evokes a worker or an architectural form in the making; on the right, a blue-clad mason, bent over his task, dominates a brown structure pierced by an arch. In between, construction elements - pillars, planks, formwork - are treated with a frankness and economy of means that recall the lesson of André Lhote's studio, where Dérieux trained in the late 1940s. The stylized black crane scratched against the blue sky, and the touches of pink, orange and brick red enliven the scene with a colorful vitality that owes as much to Matisse as to Bonnard.
The theme of the building site is a rare one in the work of Dérieux, who preferred landscapes, still lifes and figures to work scenes. However, this gouache, executed around 1955, is part of a specific historical context: that of the great post-war reconstruction projects that had a profound impact on the urban landscape and everyday life of 1950s France. It belongs to the artist's figurative period - prior to the shift towards abstraction and collage in the 1980s - and illustrates the way in which Dérieux, a figure of the Nouvelle École de Paris, treated the motif as a pretext for chromatic architecture: an art devoid of ostentation, attentive only to plastic values.
Provenance: Fonds d'atelier de l'artiste; vente du fonds d'atelier de Roger Dérieux, Artenchères, Lyon, April 30, 2026 ("Roger Dérieux, 1922-2015 - L'Art sans tapage"); private collection.
The artist
Born in Paris on January 28, 1922, Roger Dérieux grew up in an environment deeply imbued with literature and music. This family environment nurtured a precocious artistic sensitivity in the young Roger. He began painting in the 1940s.
Requitted in 1943 for compulsory labor, he was posted to Salzburg, where he became a set painter at the Landestheater. After the Liberation, he enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the studio of André Lhote, master of tempered cubism, whose teaching instilled in him a taste for rigorous construction and economy of means.
In 1947, he took part in his first gallery exhibition on rue La Boétie, alongside Aïzpiri, de Rosnay and Verdier. The following year saw the formation of the "Amateurs de Peinture" group, led by critic Guy Weelen, with whom Dérieux enjoyed a lasting friendship. He moved in an exceptional artistic milieu, rubbing shoulders with Debré, Poliakoff, Estève and Soulages, and taking part in the major post-war events that made Paris the center of pictorial modernity. In 1949, he was awarded the Éditions Tel prize at the Salon de la jeune peinture.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of a personal figurative language, nourished by an attentive observation of the world - landscapes, urban scenes, figures, still lifes - treated with a luminous palette and a direct touch that bear witness to the influence of Matisse and Bonnard. Dérieux exhibited extensively in France and abroad: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the United States and Japan.
From the 1970s onwards, Dérieux gradually abandoned figurative art and turned to abstraction and collage, until the end of his life.
Roger Dérieux died on September 25, 2015 in Pern.
In April 2026, Artenchères organized in Lyon the dispersion of the artist's studio collection - one hundred and seventy works spanning his entire career, from early figurative paintings to his final collages -, definitively establishing Roger Dérieux's place among the major figures of the Nouvelle École de Paris.
Work on view at the gallery (07240).
Shipping: please contact us for information on shipping costs in France and abroad.
ROGER DÉRIEUX (Paris, 1922 - Castelnau-Montratier/Pern, Lot, 2015)
Les Maçons
Vers 1955
Gouache on paper
12 × 16 cm (on view)
Black acrylic frame with white mat; 25 × 30 cm (framed).
Unsigned on front.
On verso: blue identification stamp "Roger Dérieux", with autograph signature of Béatrice Peyret-Vignals (artist's legatee), certifying the authenticity of the work dated January 23, 2026; stamp of the Artenchères studio sale, Lyon, April 30, 2026.
Set against a background of khaki and blue tones characteristic of Dérieux's palette, the composition animates a construction site: on the left, a massive, synthetic figure, rendered in a cream solid surrounded by black, evokes a worker or an architectural form in the making; on the right, a blue-clad mason, bent over his task, dominates a brown structure pierced by an arch. In between, construction elements - pillars, planks, formwork - are treated with a frankness and economy of means that recall the lesson of André Lhote's studio, where Dérieux trained in the late 1940s. The stylized black crane scratched against the blue sky, and the touches of pink, orange and brick red enliven the scene with a colorful vitality that owes as much to Matisse as to Bonnard.
The theme of the building site is a rare one in the work of Dérieux, who preferred landscapes, still lifes and figures to work scenes. However, this gouache, executed around 1955, is part of a specific historical context: that of the great post-war reconstruction projects that had a profound impact on the urban landscape and everyday life of 1950s France. It belongs to the artist's figurative period - prior to the shift towards abstraction and collage in the 1980s - and illustrates the way in which Dérieux, a figure of the Nouvelle École de Paris, treated the motif as a pretext for chromatic architecture: an art devoid of ostentation, attentive only to plastic values.
Provenance: Fonds d'atelier de l'artiste; vente du fonds d'atelier de Roger Dérieux, Artenchères, Lyon, April 30, 2026 ("Roger Dérieux, 1922-2015 - L'Art sans tapage"); private collection.
The artist
Born in Paris on January 28, 1922, Roger Dérieux grew up in an environment deeply imbued with literature and music. This family environment nurtured a precocious artistic sensitivity in the young Roger. He began painting in the 1940s.
Requitted in 1943 for compulsory labor, he was posted to Salzburg, where he became a set painter at the Landestheater. After the Liberation, he enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the studio of André Lhote, master of tempered cubism, whose teaching instilled in him a taste for rigorous construction and economy of means.
In 1947, he took part in his first gallery exhibition on rue La Boétie, alongside Aïzpiri, de Rosnay and Verdier. The following year saw the formation of the "Amateurs de Peinture" group, led by critic Guy Weelen, with whom Dérieux enjoyed a lasting friendship. He moved in an exceptional artistic milieu, rubbing shoulders with Debré, Poliakoff, Estève and Soulages, and taking part in the major post-war events that made Paris the center of pictorial modernity. In 1949, he was awarded the Éditions Tel prize at the Salon de la jeune peinture.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of a personal figurative language, nourished by an attentive observation of the world - landscapes, urban scenes, figures, still lifes - treated with a luminous palette and a direct touch that bear witness to the influence of Matisse and Bonnard. Dérieux exhibited extensively in France and abroad: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the United States and Japan.
From the 1970s onwards, Dérieux gradually abandoned figurative art and turned to abstraction and collage, until the end of his life.
Roger Dérieux died on September 25, 2015 in Pern.
In April 2026, Artenchères organized in Lyon the dispersion of the artist's studio collection - one hundred and seventy works spanning his entire career, from early figurative paintings to his final collages -, definitively establishing Roger Dérieux's place among the major figures of the Nouvelle École de Paris.
Work on view at the gallery (07240).
Shipping: please contact us for information on shipping costs in France and abroad.
250 €
Period: 20th century
Style: Modern Art
Condition: Excellent condition
Material: Gouache
Width: 16 cm à vue / 30 cm encadré
Height: 12 cm à vue / 25 cm encadré
Reference (ID): 1752599
Availability: In stock
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