R. Quibel 1938,

Oil on isorel panel: 187.5 x 129 cm,
ivory-lacquered oak frame.
Provenance: anc. coll. Mario and Julia Zoutis.

Raymond Quibel was born on December 4, 1883 in Rouen.
Painter and decorator, he exhibited at the salon de l'école française in 1912 and 1913, at the Société des artistes rouennais from 1913, at the Société nationale des beaux-arts from 1922, at the Société des artistes décorateurs from 1927 to 1931.
He won the grand prize at the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes de 1925.
Four solo exhibitions were devoted to him at the galerie Georges-Petit in 1918, 1920, 1923, 1928 and one at the galerie Legrip in 1937.
He created seats and tapestries for a dining room on the Paquebot Normandie for which a host of artists, such as Jean Perzel, Jules Leleu, Jacques Emile Ruhlmann, Paul Follot, Raymond Delamarre, Raymond Subes... were called in.
On February 11, 1950, he was admitted to the Académie des sciences, belles lettres et arts de Rouen.
He died on September 18, 1978, in his 85^th year...

This work comes from the collection of Mario and Julia Zoutis, collectors and dealers with a passion for the "Art déco" period.
Mario Zoutis, of Greek origin, was the son of an art dealer specializing in pâte de verre.
Julia, his wife, whose mother was an antique dealer, worked as an interior designer and had a remarkable career.
Brought together by their shared passion, they surrounded themselves in Paris and in their Perpignan home with a remarkable array of furniture, sculptures, objets d'art and essentially decorative paintings by the greatest names in Art Nouveau and Art Deco, as well as by lesser-known artists with witty creations.
Their taste and reputation were widely recognized by a private clientele as well as by the art market with clients such as New York dealer Tony DeLorenzo, considered "the pope" of Art Deco!

Treated in a cameo of brown ochres, this decorative panel is reminiscent of the lacquered decors created around the 1930s by the greatest artist-decorators.
Technically less demanding, the varnish tempera used here employs a variety of pigments, some of them metallic, for a much less constraining and much faster realization of the subject.
Evoking the great voyages across the seas and going hand in hand, in the collective imagination, with the extraordinary tales of adventurers of all origins, these majestic vessels are commonly called "caravels" by a wide audience, sometimes to good effect, in most of the decorations of the great "Decorative Arts" period.

Here, however, we are dealing with two clippers, the first probably flying the French flag.
These American-designed ships, often fitted out by private owners, were designed from the 1830s onwards, and enjoyed their heyday during the opium smuggling and merchandise trade, but also and above all because of the "tea race" from China to England to bring to Europe the first tea of the year, which was at a premium on the market.
Throughout their voyages, the crews of these fast ships were constantly trying to break crossing records, making them the object of major bets!