Marcel Chabas (1890-1948), La Colombe, Pencil On Paper

Marcel Chabas (1890-1948)
La Colombe
Pencil on paper
Titled “La Colombe” and bears the studio stamp on the back
36.5 x 28 cm

Originally from Brest, Marcel Chabas received his first training at the École des Beaux- Arts of Lyon. He moved to Paris at the end of the 1910s and joined the Ranson Academy where he received, among others, the teaching of Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier. The one his comrades qualify as “rebellious” * decides to call himself Chabas-Chigny in order to distinguish himself from the Chabas brothers (Paul and Maurice), also painters.

Marcel Chabas exhibits regularly at the show (Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne and Salon des Tuileries). The critics of the 1920s praised his “lively, spontaneous and clever ease” which they considered promising as well as the originality of his drawings. Painter of landscapes and still lifes, Marcel Chabas also borrows themes from biblical history and literature, notably Dom Juan in the Underworld, a poem by Charles Baudelaire and Le Roi Peste, a novel by Edgar Poë. In 1922, he produced a series of sixteen drawings illustrating The Calvary of the Soldier by Abel Moreau (Paris, Éditions du Nouveau Monde). During the Second World War, Maurice Chabas put his skills as a painter at the service of the Resistance.

The drawing that we present, titled “The Dove”, seems to evoke the scene which occurs after the Flood as it emerged from the Old Testament and where a dove appears, thus marking the end of an uncertain and distressing period. His presence symbolizes a form of rebirth for humanity which had then sunk.