Victor Prouvé (1858-1943), Study Of A Cat Grooming Itself, Charcoal On Paper

Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
Study of a cat 
Charcoal on paper
15 × 14 cm
frame 30 x 30 cm
Provenance: artist's family

A major figure of the Nancy School, Victor Prouvé is the father of the architect and designer Jean Prouvé. A multidisciplinary artist, he is above all a painter and draftsman but also devotes himself to engraving, sculpture, illustration and the art of bookbinding. Victor Prouvé followed an initial training in drawing in Nancy from 1873 to 1877 before joining the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. He exhibited at the Salon from 1885 where his submissions were particularly well received.

Victor Prouvé became friends with the master glassmaker Émile Gallé for whom he designed glassware and furniture decorations that were notably exhibited at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He thus produced a prolific body of work punctuated by public commissions and collaborations with artists and craftsmen emblematic of Art Nouveau such as Louis Majorelle, Eugène Vallin and the Daum brothers. Very attached to his hometown, Victor Prouvé was one of the founding members of the École de Nancy in 1901, of which he took over the presidency in 1904 upon the death of Émile Gallé. He also directed the École des beaux-arts de Nancy from 1919 to 1940.

The pencil drawing we are offering is a study of a cat grooming itself from the artist's family.