Pierre Charbonnier (1897-1978)

Pierre Charbonnier (1897-1978)
The Factory near the River
Gouache on cardboard
65 x 50 cm
Sold unframed

Born in 1897 in Vienne (Isère), Pierre Charbonnier predestined himself very early for an artistic career. He received his first training at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon in 1915 before settling in Paris where he joined the Ranson Academy. He presented his first paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d'Automne in the early 1920s. He also exhibited in galleries in France (Henriette Gomès gallery, Albert Loeb gallery) and abroad ( Italy, Japan, Brazil, Luxembourg). Active in the world of cinema, he also distinguished himself as a decorator, notably for filmmaker Robert Bresson from 1934 to 1970, but also as a director.

Living between Paris and the Drôme, Pierre Charbonnier paints many refined urban views with a permanent concern for the framing which testifies to a sensitive eye for photographic and cinematographic shots. His compositions are often very geometric and feature urban elements in a static atmosphere. They are punctuated by large lines, sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical, creating large voids. In the aftermath of the Second World War, his paintings illustrate in a falsely naive way the invasion of urban space by concrete constructions on which he casts an angelic gaze. As evidenced by the gouache that we propose, the artist represents the modern city in full transformation, the city of factories and buildings integrating metal infrastructures and other slender chimneys and technical materials such as the Center Pompidou inaugurated in 1977. Most of the inanimate times, the landscapes of Pierre Charbonnier made of pure and intense colors express the poetry of the modern post-war world. © A. Biot