Watercolor. Camille Hilaire

Born in Metz in 1916, Camille Hilaire showed a strong interest in drawing from a very young age. As a teenager, he was a regular at his local library, where he copied the works of Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein. His early drawings caught the attention of Nicolas Untersteller, a painter from Lorraine who would later become director of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Having settled in the capital during World War II, Camille Hilaire enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the same time, he attended the studio of André Lhote, a leading figure in Cubism, becoming first his student, then his assistant, and finally his friend. This training had a profound influence on his work: Hilaire adopted the rigor of composition, the geometrization of space, and the multiplication of viewpoints, while retaining a more fluid, luminous, and sensual style.

Exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne as early as 1942, he went on to participate in the major Parisian salons—the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de Mai, and the Salon des Tuileries—where he rubbed shoulders with the artists who contributed to the renewal of postwar French painting.

The recipient of several awards, including the Venice Prize and the Casa de Velázquez Prize, he also had a distinguished career as a teacher: a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy from 1947 to 1958, and then in Paris until 1968.

A painter, draftsman, lithographer, and tapestry designer, Camille Hilaire developed a body of work that is instantly recognizable. His landscapes, interiors, and especially his female figures combine solid composition with a vibrant color palette. Without ever abandoning figurative art, he borrowed Cubism’s freedom of composition to better highlight color, light, and the grace of the human form.

This last sentence leads quite naturally to Woman at Her Dressing Table, where André Lhote’s influence is evident precisely in the fragmented mirrors and the coexistence of several faces surrounding the model.

Signed lower right
54 x 65 cm - framed 77 x 80 cm