Oil On Heavy Cardboard Depicting Christ, Signed By Henri Laffite And Dated 1941

From the studio collection of Henri Laffite in Condom (Gers). A painter, sculptor, and decorator from the Gers region, Henri Laffite showed talent at a very early age, creating his first sculptures at the age of 15 and enrolling the following year at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1904. There, he rented a modest room in Montparnasse, where his neighbor was the Spanish painter José Clara, a close friend of Picasso. This is how he came to associate with Picasso as well as Fernand Léger. He honed his skills in sculpture in Rodin’s studio without ever abandoning his paintbrushes. He had the opportunity to work alongside another great artist, Maurice Denis, with whom he collaborated on the frescoes for the Sacré-Cœur de Crète church in Thonon-les-Bains.  As a set designer, he left his mark on the capital’s major movie theaters and at the Colonial Exhibition, and he designed the Portuguese pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair. An avid traveler, he visited Portugal several times and later settled in Brazil for a few years before returning to France toward the end of his life.
Dimensions: cardboard 46 x 38 cm / with frame 58 x 50 cm