André Favory (1889-1937) The Open Air Ball

With a quick and nervous light touch bordering on a sketch taken from the motif and symbolizing lightness, joy of living and celebration, André Favory represents here characters celebrating and dancing in a setting of greenery, the famous ball in a tavern, a subject tackled by the greatest artists, impressionists or others. The work in excellent condition is presented in a beautiful gilded Louis XV frame which measures 68 cm by 83 cm, 46 cm by 65 cm for the canvas alone. The work is signed lower right, on the back an old label mentioning the open-air ball in 1925. Difficult to take a photo because of the reflections, the work is much more beautiful in reality. A student of the Académie Julian, and strongly influenced by Paul Cézanne, Favory painted in a cubist style during the first years of his career. In 1914, mobilized, he left for the First World War. When he exhibited again in 1919, the experience of the trenches had profoundly modified his conception of art. He then moved away from the Cubist movement, which he considered too intellectual, to approach more of the carnal aspects of nature and life. He made frequent trips to Belgium to study the work of Rubens, who therefore exerted a determining influence on him. Having become a master of color and movement, Favory now paints landscapes in warm tones, voluptuous nudes and very sensual female portraits. He exhibited regularly at the major Salons (Salon d'Automne in 1921-1923, Salon des Tuileries in 1923-1924, etc.). During the 1920s, Favory's works were exhibited in numerous galleries in Paris and Brussels, as well as in London, Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo. For critics as influential as Louis Vauxcelles, he is a major artist of his generation. At the same time, he worked as an illustrator, for works such as Les Poèmes de l'humour sad by Jules Supervielle (1919), a reissue of L'Éducation sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert (1924), Ouvert la nuit by Paul Morand (1924). ), The Game of “Madame Malade” by Maurice Beaubourg (1926), or Drugs and Paintings, contemporary art album by François Quelvée (undated). Suffering from a serious and debilitating illness, he had to stop painting in the early 1930s, and died in 1937. Exhibitions Yves Alix, René Durey, André Favory, Wilhelm Gimmi, Marcel Roche and Henry de Waroquier, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, 1923 Works in public collections In France Several of his works, including Le Repos du model (1924), are kept in Paris at the National Museum of Modern Art. In Switzerland Geneva, Petit Palais: Les Baigneuses.