Gard Léon (1901-1979) "cedar In The Parc Des Bonshommes" Isle Adam Tulle Paris Winter

GARD Léon (1901-1979)

"Cedar in the park of Bonshommes, L'Isle-Adam"

Oil on cardboard,
Signed lower right,

Provenance: Family of the artist,

Beautiful work of the painter Léon Gard which represents a view of Parc des Bonshommes in L'Isle-Adam with its cedar. The work was produced around 1965-1969, at the Château des Bonshommes, during one of the artist's stays fleeing the agitation of Paris.

Born in Tulle in Corrèze, the Gard family will settle ten years later in Morigny near Etampes then in Paris. From the age of 12, Léon Gard showed his artistic predispositions by painting his charcoal portrait.
At 16, he copied old paintings for a play "Little Queen".
He received encouragement from the State and was proposed as a member of the Salon d'Automne the following year.

In 1922, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the studio of the painter Ernest Laurent, but resisting the theories of his teachers and the atmosphere that reigned in this school, he signed a contract with the art dealer Georges Chéron who exhibits Soutine, Foujita and Van Dongen. His friend and patron, Louis Metman, director of the Decorative Arts Museum, then allocated him a pension so that he could paint in Toulon. The economic crisis of 1931 forced the painter to find a job in a painting restoration workshop of which he would become the boss. At the same time, he continues to send his works to the Salon de la Nationale and to exhibit notably at the Galerie Charpentier and Bernheim in Paris. Thanks to his job, he befriends Sacha Guitry.

In 1946, Léon Gard founded the art review Apollo and then undertook a crusade against non-figurative painting. In order to leave the tumult of Paris, the artist goes to stay several times at the Château des Bonshommes in the forest of Isle Adam and takes pleasure in representing the Parc des Bonshommes according to the whims of the weather and the seasons. Léon Gard is a great colourist who strives to represent what he sees with precision in compositions where he sometimes expresses his love for precise outline, detail, the weight of things; at other times, in a broader way, he surrenders to his love of the atmosphere and the colorful vibrations; finally, he tries on a few occasions to merge these two almost irreconcilable problems into a single one in the same work.

For further information on the artist, we can refer to the website dedicated to the painter.

Dimensions: 46 x 38 cm without frame and 65 x 57 cm with its Montparnasse Louis XV style frame in wood.

A catalog on the painter Léon Gard (1901-1979) as well as a certificate of the beneficiary will be given to the purchaser.

For more information, contact us.