Pierre Charbonnier 1897 - 1978 The Mills Of Pantin - Oil On Canvas Signed And Titled

PIERRE CHARBONNIER 1897 - 1978
The mills of Pantin

Cubist oil on canvas signed lower right and titled on the back
Dated "Avril.." possibly 46 but without certainty

Surrounded by a wooden stick, wear to the canvas and missing parts are visible on the ends of the canvas.

Biography:

Pierre Charbonnier was a painter of landscapes, urban landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, watercolorist, illustrator and decorator. He was a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyon in 1915 then a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1920.

It was outside the school that he received lessons from Maurice Denis, Vuillard and Bonnard.

He participated in the Salon des Indépendants from 1919 to 1926, the Salon d'Automne from 1923 to 1928 and the Salon des Tuileries since its foundation.
He also appeared in numerous group exhibitions, including the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1952 and 1954, the Salon de Mai in 1967.
He received the Lissone Prize in 1953.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1921 in the foyer of the Théatre de l'Oeuvre in Paris, followed by many others, especially in Paris and Belgium.
In 1974 an exhibition of his works was shown in the provinces, at the Maison de la Culture in Saint-Etienne and at the Montpellier Museum.

A friend of poets, his exhibitions were often presented by André Salmon, René Char, Francis Ponge, Jacques Prévert. He was very active as a decorator and illustrator, painting, for example, a floral decoration for a building by Auguste Perret and illustrating: Les noces exemplaire de Mie Saucée by André Salmon, Atala by Chateaubriant, and the bestiary by F. Dodet.

He also worked extensively in the cinematographic field: we owe him a cinematographic set for Ode, a ballet by B. Kochno at the Ballets de S. Diaghilev. He directed films: Contact (Belgian Electricity), 1930, Pirates of the Rhone, and Bracos of Sologne with J. Aurenche in 1933.
From 1934, he produced a feature-length animated film: La Fortune enchantée. He is the author of the sets for all of Robert Bresson's films. He also set the lighting set for The Mystery of the Mystic Lamb, represented on the forecourt of Ghent Cathedral in Belgium. Since the Second World War, his paintings have often been a falsely naive observation of the invasion of urban space by concrete constructions to which he opposes an angelic gaze, striving to detail the delicacy of the play of light on the endless facades.
His harsh style governs the rare color harmonies of his paintings. Museums: Arles Luxembourg- Lyon-Marseille- Nancy -Paris- Rio de Janeiro —Saint-Etienne-Sao Paulo— Tokyo-Turin-Valencia.