Maurice Ferréol, Seated Woman, Oil On Canvas

The work entitled Femme assis, painted by Maurice Férréol, depicts a woman in a meditative and relaxed pose. Placed in the center of the work, her calm and composed attitude immediately captures the viewer's attention. The shapes are simplified and stylized, with well-defined contours while the treatment of volumes is marked by a flattening of perspectives, reinforcing the decorative and modern aspect of the composition. Geometric lines can be found on the pattern of the striped skirt, bringing a certain dynamism to the painting. The background, which is not contextualized, is made up of colored shapes and patterns that subtly frame the main figure. The color palette is dominated by warm tones: shades of red, orange and yellow contrast with cooler hues such as blue and green in the background. Born into a working-class family, Maurice Ferréol lost his parents very early. At the age of 16, he first sailed in the merchant navy, then aboard the battleship Jean Bart. While traveling the seas, he discovered the overseas landscapes and civilizations that would populate his compositions. Back in Lyon, he became a steelworker, living on a worker's salary and painting in his spare time. The major social changes brought about by the socialist government of 1936 fueled his desire to paint. Although self-taught, his technique developed to the point of designing tapestry cartoons, to scale and numbered according to the range of colors. The Musée des Hospices Civils de Lyon acquired one of his tapestries: Le Paradis retrouvé (1.75 x 3.50 meters). State aid enabled the creation of the 60 square meter Cavaliers tapestry that he produced for the École Centrale de Lyon. In these representations, the profusion of images and colors serves as a composition. Associated with the naïve tradition, we find in his works numerous references to the artist Paul Gauguin. The catalogue for the 1979 retrospective exhibition describes him as appreciating the poetry of the Bible: "Genesis and Revelation, the beginning and end of the world, have nourished his most ambitious projects as a universe populated by birds and fish of many colours... springs up before us."