Camille Roche (1894-1948) - The Monkeys - Pastel And Charcoal

Exceptional pastel and charcoal on paper signed by the French artist Camille Roche (1894-1948). The artist is known for his drawings of landscapes, nudes and animals. Here he focuses on a family of monkeys whose expressions he brilliantly sketches. Animal painting will remain one of the guiding threads of Camille Roche's career. He is the brother of the famous decorator and interior designer Serge Roche (1898-1988). The work has been recently framed with anti-reflective glass.

Dimensions with frame: 51.5 cm x 58.5 cm.

Good condition.

Born in Paris in 1894, Camille Roche grew up in a family that predestined him for an artistic career. His father, Odilon Roche (1868-1947), was a painter from Châteauneuf-sur-Loire who exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français but whose main activity was that of an art and antiques dealer. He sold objects imported from China and Persia in a shop he ran on rue Navarin (9th arrondissement) and which met with some success. His training, his economic prosperity as well as his connections allowed him to offer an artistic education to his three children, Camille, Serge (1898-1988) and Lucette (1901-1996). Precocious, his eldest quickly revealed a real talent for drawing and painting which he supported by having him exhibit his first paintings at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, when Camille was only eleven years old. He also rented him a studio and encouraged him to carry out his pictorial research alone, moving away from the rigor imposed by official institutions. With this unique education, the young man received his first decorative commissions in 1913 and designed large oriental-inspired frescoes to adorn the apartments of his father's clients and friends, such as the writer Colette and her husband, the journalist Henry de Jouvenel, and Mademoiselle Chanel.