"the Fiacre Paris 1941" Yves Brayer (1907 -1990)

BRAYER, Yves born November 18, 1907 in Versailles, Yvelines, France; 1930, Grand Prix de Rome; 1931-1934, resident of the Villa Medici, Rome; 1935, teaches at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière*; 1954, Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris; 1957, elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts; 1977, curator of the Musée Marmottan; 1990, died May 29 in Paris; buried in Les Baux-de-Provence. Painter, illustrator, author of cartoons and decorator. Painter of Mediterranean landscapes, whether it be Provence, Spain, Italy or Morocco, the sun allows him to make his work happy. Although the lower tints, of Prague or Russia, in no way prevent him from maintaining excellence in the arrangement and dialogue of colors. Where he contrasted blacks and ochres with judiciously placed red spots, he makes gold bulbs or copper domes respond to each other. Moreover, his canvases are more luminous than he is a painter of light; his palette reflects the brightness more than the play of shadow. A colorist but also a graphic artist. In the mid-1930s, he abandoned a tendency that had carried him, with the help of black washes and gouache, towards expressionism. He then mastered his drawing and spatial organization. He is clear, in both senses of the word, and simple. Quite simply. His landscapes, ground, sky, buildings, well separated, his very upright seated figures and his still lifes have great readability, and total serenity. From 1928 to 1937, therefore, he sketched scenes from the world, an ambassador's arrival, a low mass, a funeral in Venice, with the vivacity of a Steinlen, Brocanteurs au Campo dei Fiori (1933, MNAM, Paris). And, from 1926, he was, simultaneously, "the portraitist of Paris", with an expressive seriousness, already capturing, in the streets of the capital, the silhouettes of horses or cassocks. He did not succumb to worldly vanity and he had the secret of ellipsis. His scenes of Parisian life in 1937 and 1938, whether it be Charcot's funeral or the British royal couple on the grand staircase of the Opera, combine in a rapidity of line the gray of the decor with the red and blue of the flags or robes, like Les Séminaristes à Rome (1932, MAMVP, Paris) or Les Séminaristes éthiopiens (1934) where he combines the brown of the skin, the black of the cassock and the red of the inner cap of the round hat. Portrait of Serge Lifar (1942) has the force of a good Derain*. Les Arlésiennes (1952, MAMVP, Paris), Herminia (1955), L'Espagnole à la mantille blanche (1969, fond. Brayer, Les Baux-de-Provence) and L'Espagnole à la robe rouge (1972, fond. brayer) are far from being futile, even if they do not reveal any mystery. He observes from the wings the grandeur of the story that is being written and the familiarity of the life that is happening. He is, however, at the origin of an ambiguity. A painter of quality, he established, in 1952, his "olive tree" style, which he constantly repeated to the point of finding himself identified with it. These are these Mediterranean landscapes, with nervous features, twisted by olive trees, or mountain ridges, and populated by Camargue horses with beautiful manes. Despite sober means limited to a few quickly brushed silhouettes, underlined by a few telling details, Les Oliviers de Provence (1952, Brayer background), this inflation of the same subject becomes a stereotype and partially obscures the rest and the best of his work. ExPo.: 1927, Salon d'Automne, Paris; 1934, Charpentier, Paris; 1990, Robin-Leadouze, Paris (P). RETROSPECTIVES: 1957, Cagnes-sur-mer museum; 1961, Rath museum, Geneva; 1993, Marmottan museum, Paris. Museums: Brayer museum, Maison du Grand Fauconnier, Cordes; Hôtel des Porcelets, Les Baux-de-Provence; Carnavalet museum, Paris, 44 works. PUBLIC PLACES: La Cappelette, Cordes, Saint Jacques defeating the Moors, The Pilgrimage to Saint-Jacques, and the chapel of the Penitents, Les Baux-de-Provence, The Donors (the painter and the mayor) Black and brown ink wash on paper signed lower right, located Paris and dated 1941. (perfect condition) View format: 34.5 x 41 cm with frame: 53 x 61.5 cm