Oil On Canvas Camille Hilaire Le Printemps éclate

Camille Hilaire was born into a modest family in Metz, where he spent his youth and attended school. The young man began his career as a house painter. In the 1930s, he began drawing and painting. During this period, he frequented the city's library to copy Hans Holbein, and above all Albrecht Dürer, whom he admired. Following in his master's footsteps, he acquired a sure touch and a keen sense of detail, while being fascinated by the light emanating from the works of the great Italian painters. His work was noticed by Jean Giono and Nicolas Untersteller, who welcomed him to his painting studio in Metz. Following the intervention of the city's Governor, he was sent to Paris for military service, which enabled him to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. At the height of the Occupation, he chose to enroll under a false name, Leblanc. At the same time, he took classes with André Lhote and exhibited for the first time at the Salon d'Automne in 1942.

In 1947 Camille Hilaire turned to a career as a teacher, teaching drawing and decorative composition at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Art in Nancy, before continuing at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Art in Paris in 1958. He opened up to new techniques and tried his hand at aquarelle, lithography, tapisserie andvitrail. From 1947, a travel grant enabled him to discover France. This was to be a very productive period, of which unfortunately virtually no paintings remain, the painter having destroyed almost everything. In 1958, he was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From 1964 onwards, he divided his time between the south of France and Normandy, producing numerous nature studies which he then developed in his studio. His work focuses on light and color.

Camille Hilaire nourishes his talent from his travels throughout the century, his paintings expressing their beauty and diversity, from Venice to Normandy, which he is particularly fond of. His work stands on the threshold between figuration and post-cubism. Throughout his life, he has cultivated a creative autonomy, free from the major avant-garde currents borrowed by the vast majority of his contemporaries. His work is authentic and luminous, his universe rich and colorful. Numerousmonographs have been devoted to him around the world, and he remains in the history of art as one of the painters who marked the mid-twentieth century. Camille Hilaire has been exhibited permanently since 1990 at the 4 Galerie Estades sites in Paris, Lyon, Toulon, and Baden-Baden (Germany)