Lucien Weil Portrait 1940 Souvenir Stalag IIIa

Watercolor 21.5 cm x 28 cm Lucien Weil 1902 1963 annotated Lucien Weil was born in Biesheim, a small town in Haut-Rhin, on March 10, 1902. At that time, Alsace was German. At the age of 15 he studied industrial design at the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse. Then very quickly, Lucien Weil headed for artistic studies at the Practical School of Applied Arts in Colmar. Two scholarships reward his talent and perseverance, so that he can go to Paris and enroll at the National School of Decorative Arts in 1920. In 1923, he obtains the honorary prize there, and in 1924 , his diploma of Professor of drawing and in 1926, he obtained the second Grand Prix de Rome with the work “La Charité”, currently kept at the Unterlinden museum in Colmar. Lucien Weil exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1925. In 1930, he married the painter Madeleine Lestienne (1905-1994) and in 1934, Lucien Weil obtained from the Academy of Fine Arts a scholarship for boarding school at the Casa Velázquez de Madrid. On September 2, 1939, the artist was mobilized. Wounded on June 21, 1940, he was taken prisoner of war at Stalag III A in Luckenwalde, near Berlin. In 1941, Lucien Weil was repatriated to the Vichy military hospital. Demobilized in Clermont-Ferrand at the end of July of the same year, he took refuge in Auvergne in the free zone. From December 17, 1941 to January 1, 1942, he exhibited his paintings, portraits, figures and landscapes of Auvergne, as well as his watercolors from the Stalag at the Galerie Lorenceau in Vichy. From 1943, when the free zone was removed, he took on a false identity and became Lucien Walon. On several occasions, he changed his address to escape the Nazi regime. From March 23 to April 3, 1945, he exhibited some of the works produced in Auvergne at the Nouvelles Galeries d'Aurillac. Only a few canvases remain from this period, the artist having sold most of his production at that time. After the war, Lucien Weil forged solid ties in the town of Erquy (Brittany), until his death in St Brieuc hospital on April 3, 1963, at the age of 61. He is buried in Viroflay, near Paris. The French State, as well as various institutions and the museums of Colmar, Cambrai, Douai and Strasbourg have his works. Painter of portraits, landscapes, seascapes and watercolors, it is the portraits that constitute his great specialty. He chooses his models in all age categories, from young children to old people. He gives life and soul to each portrait, the play of light and shadow creating both a familiar and intimate atmosphere. A clear example is this portrait of Jean Joly (Vichy 1900-1952), painter and decorator, president of the "Compagnons de la Peinture". The artist is represented with his painter's palette and the Auvergne landscape in the background. References: Christel Lesgourgues, Biography of Lucien Weil; Archives of France.