Marco De Gastyne (1889–1992), Landscape With Rocks, Prix De Rome 1911

Marco de Gastyne (1889–1982)
French painter, illustrator, and filmmaker Marco de Gastyne, whose real name was Marc Henri Benoist, was born in Paris in 1889. The son of writer Jules de Gastyne, he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Fernand Cormon. In 1911, he won the First Grand Prix de Rome for painting, an honor that allowed him to reside at the Villa Medici from 1911 to 1913.

His paintings, now less well-known than his work in film, include landscapes, portraits, and Orientalist compositions, characterized by a style that is often highly pictorial and a particular attention to the effects of light and atmosphere. Several of his landscapes depicting Brittany, Provence, and North Africa have still come up for auction.

After World War I, De Gastyne gradually turned his attention to cinema. He became a set designer and then a director, and beginning in 1922, he directed several films, including La Châtelaine du Liban and La Merveilleuse Vie de Jeanne d'Arc. At the same time, he continued his artistic work.

This work, dated 1909, thus belongs to the early stages of his painting career, just a few years before his stay in Rome and his winning of the First Grand Prix de Rome.