Marcel Leprin (1891-1933) Spanish At The Arena

Superb oil on cardboard from the accursed artist Marcel Leprin, a great lover of bullfighting, and who was once, to ensure his material life, stable boy at the Arena of Barcelona. The work, in very good condition, framed in a period setting, measures 66 cm by 84 cm including frame, and 46 cm by 65 without. Orphaned, Leprin lives a difficult youth in Marseille, he is left to himself and leads a bohemian life. He is gathered by the Salesian Fathers of Don Bosco who initiate him, noticing his gifts, drawing and lithography. He begins to paint on the old port. At 22, he is moving towards a career in bullfighting in Barcelona, but must give up to go into battle during the First World War. At the age of thirty, in 1921, he joined Paris and wandered on the Butte Montmartre where he sympathized with the artists met in the bistros, he saw the sale of drawings and pastels to tourists. In 1924, he signed an exclusive contract with Henri Bureau, a supervisor in Montmartre, who offered to help him and promote his career (it is at Henri Bureau that he will befriend the painter Frank- Will). In 1926, he began a journey through the French countryside and painted many landscapes or views of towns and villages. Despite the success of the two exhibitions at the Druet Gallery in Paris in 1928 and 1931, Marcel Leprin remains a solitary and depressive painter, he sinks into drugs and drink and dies in 1933 at Tenon Hospital. Work Died prematurely at 42, Marcel Leprin leaves about 700 paintings, he paints according to the circumstances of his life, we can distinguish three periods whose different styles express his mental and material situation, the Marseille period, including large decorative murals , the Montmartre period, quite dark and commercial, the period of travel in the province, more warm and creative. It is also illustrated in bullfighting pictures. The paintings of Leprin are mainly visible today at the National Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris, the Carnavalet Museum, the Museum of Montmartre and the museum of the Petit Palais de Genève.