Mountain Landscape And Winter Snow In The South Of France Lucien Weil 1903 -1963

Mountain landscape and winter snow in the south of France Lucien Weil 1903 -1963 dimensions 46 cm x 33 cm Lucien Weil was born in Biesheim, a small town in the Haut-Rhin, on March 10, 1902. At that time, Alsace was German. At the age of 15 he studied industrial design at the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse. Then very quickly, Lucien Weil headed for artistic studies at the Practical School of Applied Arts in Colmar. Two scholarships rewarded his talent and his perseverance, so that he was able to go to Paris and enroll at the National School of Decorative Arts in 1920. In 1923, he obtained the honorary prize there and, in 1924 , his diploma as Professor of Drawing and in 1926, he obtained the second Grand Prix de Rome there with the work "La Charité", currently kept at the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar. Lucien Weil exhibited regularly at the Salon of French Artists from 1925. In 1930, he married the painter Madeleine Lestienne (1905-1994) and in 1934, Lucien Weil obtained from the Academy of Fine Arts a scholarship to reside at the Casa Velázquez in Madrid. On September 2, 1939, the artist was mobilized. Wounded on June 21, 1940, he was taken prisoner of war in Stalag III A in Luckenwalde, near Berlin. In 1941, Lucien Weil was repatriated to the Vichy military hospital. Demobilized in Clermont-Ferrand at the end of July of the same year, he took refuge in Auvergne in the free zone. From December 17, 1941 to January 1, 1942, he exhibited his paintings, portraits, figures and landscapes of Auvergne, as well as his Stalag watercolors at the Galerie Lorenceau in Vichy. From 1943, when the free zone was abolished, he took on a false identity and became Lucien Walon. On several occasions, he changed his address to flee the Nazi regime. From March 23 to April 3, 1945, he exhibited some of the works produced in Auvergne at the Nouvelles Galeries in Aurillac. Only a few paintings from this period remain, the artist having sold most of his production at that time. After the war, Lucien Weil forged strong ties in the town of Erquy (Brittany), until his death in St Brieuc hospital on April 3, 1963, at the age of 61. He is buried in Viroflay, near Paris. The French State, as well as various institutions and the museums of Colmar, Cambrai, Douai and Strasbourg own his works. Painter of portraits, landscapes, seascapes and watercolors, it is the portraits that constitute his great specialty. He chooses his models in all age categories, from young children to old people. He gives life and soul to each portrait, the play of shadows and light creating both a familiar and intimate atmosphere. A clear example is this portrait of Jean Joly (Vichy 1900-1952), painter and decorator, president of the "Compagnons de la Peinture". The artist is represented with his painter's palette and the Auvergne landscape in the background. References: Christel Lesgourgues, Biography of Lucien Weil; Archives of France.