Léon Cassel (1873 Lille-1961 Paris): "androgynous Nude" Art-deco, Post-impressionist

Léon CASSEL (1873 Lille-1961 Tonneins): "Nu androgyne" Oil on canvas signed lower right, 46 x 55 cm; Art-deco, Post-impressionist Léon-Louis Cassel was born in Lille (59) on May 10, 1873. He is the son of Louis Cassel, painter and decorator, and Marie-Justine Leroux. He died on January 30, 1961 in Paris. In October 1885 (1): He entered the School of Fine Arts in his hometown, where he was a pupil of Pharaon de Winter, with the painter Mr. Edmond Jamois as a fellow student. He became a pupil of Bonnat and Glaize at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris (2). After the 1st World War he fixes on his canvases the old picturesque streets of a small city (destroyed entirely by the Germans) Dixmude (in the Flemish region of Belgium), but also the streets and districts of Montmartre in Paris. In 1939, he left Paris to take refuge in Tonneins. He takes a liking to our beautiful landscapes and especially to the Garonne valley. He paints: the quays, the bridge, the town hall of Tonneins. In his thirst for reality, he incorporates into his dough a little of this "lise" which fertilizes our plains during the overflows of the Garonne. Then it pushes a point in the south of the department on the edge of the Landes: Landes farms, Villefranche du Queyran. He was also attracted by the magnificent 13th century church in the town of Marmande and its old cloister, which have been beautifully painted for posterity… You can see a small part of his work in the Town Hall of Tonneins. (Alain Glayroux)