Charles Gir (1883-1941) - The Dancers Of The Opera - Pastel Drawing

Very beautiful drawing in pastels on paper signed by Charles Gir (1883-1941) representing dancers of the Opera. Dimensions with frame: 61 cm x 76 cm Very good condition. Painter, caricaturist, sculptor, poster artist, Charles Gir was born in Tours on November 4, 1883. His real name is Girard. In 1911, he married the actress Jeanne Fusier and founded a family with her, in which were born a daughter, Françoise, and a son, François. In 1929, he settled in Grisy-les-Plâtres where he sculpted a monumental Don Quixote with clay from Grisy les Plâtres. This 1934 work is now installed on the terrace of the Cergy-Pontoise prefecture. The new war of 1940 took him to the Charentes, with friends, where he fell ill. He died in Bordeaux hospital in 1941. He is now buried in the village cemetery. Jeanne Fusier Gir joined him there in 1973. Grandson of a musician, director of the Conservatory of Tours, Charles Gir, whose real name was, Charles Girard learned the violin at a very young age. Placed against his will, as a bookstore seller in Tours, he does everything to get himself dismissed quickly and flee to Paris, by bicycle, taking his violin for all luggage. In Paris, he took lessons at the Germain Pilon school of sculpture and the Boulle school, to reassure his parents. Not having the financial means to subsist by his sculpture work alone, he very quickly launched into press cartoons, caricatures, theater posters where he quickly became famous. His taste for music led him to dance. For seventeen years, he frequents in opera: dance lessons, competitions, rehearsals from which he draws an incalculable number of sketches, pastels, sculptures; he thus becomes the "pastelist" of the dance. Gassed, from the first clashes of the 1914 war, he narrowly escaped death, but did not stop drawing for all that. Therefore, his inspiration does not emerge easily from the memories of that time. The last year of the conflict, he was assigned to "camouflage", a special section where he rubbed shoulders with musicians and writers. After the war, he drew in Comoedia, exhibited at the comedians' salon, the independent salon, the autumn salon and continued his work as a sculptor. Admirer of Honoré Daumier, he painted many theater and circus characters. Poster artist, he worked for Mistinguett, Dranem, Maurice Chevalier, the DollySister's, Damia, Jeanne Fusier, the harlequin of the union des artistes gala, the national lottery ... In those years, Montmartrois he rubbed shoulders with his friends: Vilette , Gassier, Courteline, Mac Orlan, Colette, Dorgelès, Jehan Rictus, Dorival, Poulbot, Paul Colin, illustrates books, brings back sketches of the young Mussolini from Italy, goes to paint in Spain and Morocco, exhibits paintings in America and sculptures, performs on stage with an orchestra performing pastels. In 1928, he worked with his friend Paul Colin on the decoration of the Tabarin ball, drawing modern dance, the French cancan and the black ballets. At this time of his life, he painted more and more and escaped to the countryside of Ile de France and Saint Guénolé, in Brittany, where he often boarded at Café Kerlizin, Epiais Rhus, where he comes with Raoul Dufy to join other painter friends. Charles Gir painted there, a large fresco intended for the decoration of the coffee room. In 1929, he and Jeanne Fusier bought a farm in Grisy les Plâtres. Charles Gir, who therefore ceased to be social and Parisian, set up a large workshop in which he worked alone until 1939. It was there that he celebrated the lights and colors of Vexin, c he is still there, that he creates his "Don Quixote", the knight with the sad face. The declaration of the Second World War broke it definitively. Overwhelmed by this new conflict and ill, he died alone, in hospital, in 1941 in Bordeaux. His son François Gir, said of his father that he was a frank, ironic man, sometimes scathing, but of immense kindness.