Gard Léon (1901-1979) "still Life With The Laughing Child And The Shell" Paris Donatello Tulle

GARD Léon (1901-1979)

"Still life with bust of the laughing child, shell and iridescent glass, Paris 1970"

Oil on canvas,
Signed upper right,

Provenance: Family of the artist,

Beautiful work of the painter Léon Gard which represents a still life with the bust of the laughing child after Donatello, the shell and the iridescent glass on an entablature.
The painter Léon Gard favors a painting from nature in order to observe and faithfully reproduce all the details, even minimal that the eye can see, in particular the play of light of the glassware, the color of the shell and the expression. of the bust of the laughing child.

Born in Tulle in Corrèze, the Gard family settled down ten years later in Morigny near Etampes then in Paris.
From the age of 12, Léon Gard showed his artistic predispositions by painting his charcoal portrait.
At 16, he copied old paintings for a play "Petite Reine". He received encouragement from the State and was offered as a member of the Salon d'Automne the following year.

In 1922, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the studio of the painter Ernest Laurent, but resisting the theories of his teachers and the atmosphere that reigned in this school, he signed a contract with the art dealer Georges Chéron who exhibits Soutine, Foujita and Van Dongen. His friend and patron, Louis Metman, director of the Decorative Arts Museum, then granted him a pension so that he could paint in Toulon. The economic crisis of 1931 forced the painter to find a job in a painting restoration workshop of which he would become the boss.
At the same time, he continues to send his works to the Salon de la Nationale and to exhibit notably at the Galerie Charpentier and Bernheim in Paris. Thanks to his job, he befriends Sacha Guitry.

In 1946, Léon Gard founded the art review Apollo and then undertook a crusade against non-figurative painting. In order to leave the tumult of Paris, the artist goes to stay several times at the Château des Bonshommes in the forest of Isle Adam and will take pleasure in representing the Parc des Bonshommes according to the whims of the weather and the seasons.

Léon Gard is a great colourist who strives to represent what he sees with exactitude in compositions where he sometimes expresses his love for precise outline, detail, the weight of things; at other times, in a broader way, he surrenders to his love of the atmosphere and the colorful vibrations; finally, he tries on a few occasions to merge these two almost irreconcilable problems into one in the same work.

For further information on the artist, we can refer to the website dedicated to the painter.

Size: 46 x 55 cm without frame and 65 x 74 cm with its wooden Montparnasse frame.

Nb: Our canvas has been re-stretched by tension bands on the sides of the canvas.

A catalog on the painter Léon Gard (1901-1979) as well as a certificate of the beneficiary will be given to the purchaser.

For more information, contact us.