Victor Prouvé (1858-1943), Study Of Dancers

Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
Study of dancers
Blue pencil on paper
Dimensions of the work: 22 x 32 cm
Dimensions of the frame: 30 x 40 cm
Provenance: Françoise Gauthier collection, daughter of Jean Prouvé, grand-daughter of Victor Prouvé

Figure major of the School of Nancy, Victor Prouvé is the father of the architect and designer Jean Prouvé. A multidisciplinary artist, he is above all a painter and draftsman but also devotes himself to engraving, sculpture, illustration and the art of bookbinding. Victor Prouvé received his first drawing training in Nancy from 1873 and 1877 before joining the School of Fine Arts in Paris in Alexandre Cabanel's studio. He exhibited at the Salon from 1885 where his submissions were particularly well received.

Victor Prouvé befriended the master glassmaker Émile Gallé for whom he designed decorations for glassware and furniture which were notably exhibited at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He thus produced a fruitful body of work punctuated by public commissions and collaborations with emblematic Art Nouveau artists and artisans such as Louis Majorelle, Eugène Vallin and the Daum brothers. Very attached to his hometown, Victor Prouvé was one of the founding members of the Ecole de Nancy in 1901, of which he took over the presidency in 1904 on the death of Emile Gallé. He also directed the Nancy School of Fine Arts from 1919 to 1940.

The blue pencil drawing that we offer is a study of dancers from the collection of Françoise Gauthier, daughter of Jean Prouvé and granddaughter of the artist.