"the Sea At Cannes" Charles Mayer (1897–1973)

Charles Mayer (1897–1973) "The Sea at Cannes"
cca year 1940
Oil/cardboard
Dimensions with frame 54 x 46 cm,
Without frame 39 x 49 cm
Charles Mayer was born on 23 August 1897 into a German family living in Trutnov. His birth certificate therefore shows the German form of the name Karl Mayer. However, his later love for France led him to sign his paintings under the name Charles Mayer as an adult. In 1963, Charles Mayer emigrated from Czechoslovakia. He lived out the rest of his life in very modest circumstances in Rome, where he died on 7 January 1973 at the premature age of 76. He first studied at the German grammar school in Trutnov and then at the German vocational school for weaving in Rokytnica nad Jizerou. In the years 1913-1915 he stayed in the city of Sibiu in Transylvania with the music of the conductor Dvořák. He enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War. He survived the war in good health and left in 1919 for Venice, Italy, where he earned his living as a pianist and painter. He later lived in Florence, where he devoted himself to university studies. In 1923 he settled in Monte Carlo. He also traveled to North Africa that same year. Returning to Europe, he lived in France, first in the city of Biarritz, then in the seaside resort of Cannes. There he earned his living by painting and creating promotional prints.