Louis Suire 1899-1987

Louis Suire oil on panel Format 33cm x 41 cm Delivery 30 euros Louis Suire, born October 29, 1899 in Cognac and died January 18, 1987 in Lagord, was a French painter and publisher. A child from La Rochelle from a bourgeois family, Louis Suire was able to take drawing lessons under Louis Giraudeau early on. It was also thanks to the latter that he discovered in 1912 an Île de Ré that was still wild and very reclusive. As soon as he fell under its spell, he decided to buy a house there one day. His talent allowed the artist to enter the Beaux-Arts in Paris. This was the time when he attended the Académie Julian and became friends with Paul Signac, Albert Marquet1 and André Dunoyer de Segonzac2. After a short intermezzo forced by the First World War, he was able to return to La Rochelle where he quickly married, in 1923, his wife Hélène - his love since the age of 14. A year later their son Claude was born. Five more years later, in 1929, the Suire couple bought a house on the Île de Ré, in the village Les Portes-en-Ré, more precisely in La Rivière. This house subsequently became the workshop of the son as well as the grandson of Louis Suire to name these two artists: Claude Suire and Olivier Suire-Verley. Still living in La Rochelle and having a base on the island, the Suire family, first as a couple then with their son Claude, made many trips to the island serving as inspiration for the painter's abundant work. . A brilliant jack of all trades, Suire became a publisher by creating the house La Rose des Vents mainly dedicated to regionalism illustrated by his own hands. The Second World War hit his life more strongly and resulted in two years of imprisonment in a labor camp in Germany. But he returned to his territory to continue his artistic work as well as his life as a Rochelais, Rhallais but above all as a husband and father. Louis Suire died in 1987, the same year as his wife Hélène. Paintings Suire's paintings were often used as motifs for postcards. It is also thanks to this medium that the very special color that Suire gave to his paintings and thus to the image of the Ile de Ré is still propagated today. His vision of the Rhine light and the architectural and landscape simplicity of the island are the most current ambassadors for all of Charentais.