Gaston Sébire (1920-2001) Still Life With Shrimps

Gaston Sébire (1920-2001) Still Life With Shrimps, oil on canvas, cm. 65 x 81

Signed lower right

With frame: cm. 83 x 99 x 7

Provenance: private collection

Initially forced to accept a night job at the post office in order to paint during the day, in 1944 he left his job and managed to live on the earnings from painting.
His first personal exhibition was held in 1945 at the Prigent Gallery in Rouen and, although he is among the figurative artists who identify themselves with the nickname "Young Painting", he always tries to safeguard independence and personality, refusing any concession to the fashions of the moment.
After meeting Emile-Othon Friesz, a new personal exhibition was organized for him in 1946 at the Gosselin Gallery in Rouen.
In 1949 the city of Rouen purchased Sebire's first painting for the civic museum (Le port de Ouisrteham). After two years the artist settled in Paris and began to assiduously frequent the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume Museum, studying in depth the works of Rembrandt, Courbet, Manet, Monet. In 1952 he exhibited for the first time in Paris, at the Visconti Gallery, arousing the interest of the public and critics. On this occasion he was noticed by Raymond Nacenta, director of the famous Galerie Charpentier, who invited him to exhibit a few months later in a group show together with Lorjou, Aïzpiri, Minaux and Yvonne Mottet. Each painter is represented by four canvases and accompanied by a preface by Pierre Mazars in the catalogue. The following year his work Le thon was chosen among many others by a group of critics, winning the Prix de la Critique (ex aequo with Yvonne Mottet)  consisting of a scholarship of 50,000 FF, as well as an exhibition at the Saint-Placide Gallery in Paris, where the selection of the artists was held.
At that time Sébire painted canvases dominated by dark grays and whites, earth colors and greens, sometimes illuminated by muted reds. Within solid and often boldly constructed compositions, clear and broad lines stand out. Sébire had made a confidence to René Baratte, critic of the newspaper “Figaro”, which well expresses his adherence to figurative painting: “I admire a painter like Villon, who plastically expresses his interior life, but I think I love things too much this world so that one day it can become abstract." These are fruitful years; he was entrusted with the decorations and costumes of "L'ange gris" for De Cuevas' ballets, with music by Debussy; in 1953 he made his debut at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts and the Salon des Tuileries and in 1955 at the Salon des Indépendants, where he exhibited regularly. He left for Spain and upon his return, in 1956 the Charpentier Gallery organized an important exhibition for him representing four years of painting with landscapes of Normandy, Spain, the South of France, many still lifes and portraits. Now his palette tends to lighten, while maintaining the solidity of the structure. The same year the Salon d'Automne debuted, to which he remained faithful. In 1957 he received the important Greenshields Prize, with the painting La dinde. During the sixties his landscapes are characterized by a contained lyricism, he elaborates a rational expressionism whose effects are based on well-structured compositions. In 1965 he exhibited for the first time in the United States, in Palm Beach and then in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Among the numerous group exhibitions in which he participates are: in 1957, at the Biennale des Jeunes Pavillon de Marsan in Paris; Hommage à Corot to Viroflay; in 1959 in Abidjan at the “Le petrole” exhibition; in 1961 at the V Salon de l'Union des Arts plastique du Havre; in 1962 together with Picasso, Cocteau, Braye, Dufy at Gallery 65 in Cannes; in 1962 and 1964 at the exhibitions of the Gruppo Pittori Contemporanei Figurativi organized by the newspaper “Asahi” in Japan; from 1963 he participated in the Salon Comparaison and from 1964 in the Salon d'Honfleur and the Salon des Artistes français where he received the gold medal in 1965 and the Grand Prix in 1968.
Two important retrospective exhibitions were dedicated to him in 1976 at the Le Mesnil-Esnard Cultural Center in Normandy and in 1986 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen.

The painting is in good condition.

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