Gard Léon (1901-1979) "still Life With A Banyuls Carafe" Paris Verrerie Tulle France

GARD Léon (1901-1979)

"Still life with a Banyuls carafe"

Oil on canvas,
Signed upper left,

Provenance: Family of the artist,
Exhibition: Paris 1970

Beautiful work by the painter Léon Gard which represents a still life with glassware on a tray.
The painter Léon Gard favors painting from nature in order to faithfully observe and reproduce all the details, even minimal ones that the eye can see, in particular the play of light from the glassware.

Born in Tulle in Corrèze, the Gard family settled around ten years later in Morigny near Etampes then in Paris. From the age of 12, Léon Gard showed his artistic predispositions by creating his portrait in charcoal.
At 16, he copied old paintings for a play “Little Queen”. He received encouragement from the State and was proposed as a member of the Salon d'Automne the following year.

In 1922, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the studio of the painter Ernest Laurent, but finding it difficult to tolerate the theories of his teachers and the atmosphere that reigned in this school, he signed a contract with the art dealer Georges Chéron who exhibited Soutine, Foujita and Van Dongen.
His friend and patron, Louis Metman, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts, then gave him a pension so that he could paint in Toulon. The economic crisis of 1931 forced the painter to find a job in a painting restoration workshop of which he became the boss. At the same time, he continues to send his works to the Salon de la Nationale and to exhibit in particular at the Galerie Charpentier and Bernheim in Paris.
Thanks to his job, he became friends with Sacha Guitry.

In 1946, Léon Gard founded the art magazine Apollo and began a crusade against non-figurative painting. In order to leave the tumult of Paris, the artist went to stay several times at the Château des Bonshommes in the forest of Isle Adam and took pleasure in representing the Parc des Bonshommes according to the whims of the weather and the seasons. Léon Gard is a great colorist who strives to represent what he sees with accuracy in compositions where he sometimes expresses his love of precise contours, details, and the weight of things; other times, in a broader way, he abandons himself to his love of atmosphere and colorful vibrations; finally, he attempts on a few occasions to merge these two almost irreconcilable problems into one in the same work.

For further information on the artist, we can refer to the website dedicated to the painter.

Dimensions: 54 x 65 cm without frame and 74 x 84 cm with its modern wooden frame.

A catalog on the painter Léon Gard (1901-1979) as well as a certificate from the beneficiary will be given to the buyer.

For more information, contact us.