Dancers In Phnom Penh - François De Marliave - Pencil Drawing, Signed, Located And Dated

François de Marliave (1874 – 1953) Born in Toulon. First a student officer in the merchant navy, he decided around the age of 25 to devote himself fully to painting. He will be a traveling artist par excellence, since he will have the opportunity to travel to America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He made two trips to Indochina, the first in 1910 thanks to a scholarship. Winner of one of the first editions of the Indochina Prize in 1911, he received public commissions to decorate several monuments in Tonkin. His second stay will take place in 1920-1921. There he prepared the colonial exhibition in Marseille in 1922. Later, he participated in the decoration of the Pavilion of Indochina at the colonial exhibition of 1931 in Vincennes. He will also be an illustrator of magazines and exotic novels such as the "Pilgrim of Angkor" by Pierre Loti. His drawings and watercolors, because of their precision because they are often annotated, located and dated, constitute precious historical and ethnographic testimonies.