Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) Modern painter

Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) was an American painter🎨 and art critic. In characteristic figurative works of the 1920s, he depicted the upper class with a cold eye. Smooth, simplified volumes sculpt his society figures, who seem to have little capacity for personal relationships.

Although sometimes approaching social criticism, Pène du Bois's inherent satire generally yields to a fascination with chic and an apparent distaste for probing beyond appearances into the realm of character. As a writer, he championed the American realist tradition but also endeavored to explain modern currents.

Although he helped to plan the Armory Show and exhibited six works, he concentrated on writing for about fifteen years, working as a newspaper critic and from 1913 serving for most of seven years as editor of the magazine Arts and Decoration. Upon leaving his editorial post as his mature style emerged, he settled in Westport, Connecticut. He lived in France from 1924-1930 and again in the mid-1950s.

After his work lost its acute edge during the 1930s, he eventually he became a studio painter of bland portraits, still lifes, and nudes. Continuing to write, he published books on John Sloan, William Glackens🎨, Edward Hopper🎨 and Ernest Lawson. His autobiography, Artists Say the Silliest Things, appeared in 1940. He died in Boston following an extended illness.

Born in Brooklyn, Pène du Bois trained at the New York School of Art (now Parsons, the New School for Design) with William Merritt Chase🎨, Robert Henri🎨 and Kenneth Hayes Miller, the leading art teachers of the early twentieth century, before embarking for study in Paris in 1905-1906. After his return to New York, his paintings reflected the painterly realism of the Ashcan School.

Guy Pène du Bois è stato un pittore, critico d'arte ed educatore Americano.

Nato nel 1984 a Brooklyn, New York, Pène du Bois discende da immigrati francesi che si stabilirono in Louisiana nel 1738.

Ha studiato con William Merritt Chase alla New York School of Art ed in seguito ha continuato la sua formazione con Robert Henri, i cui insegnamenti portano Pène du Bois a concentrarsi maggiormente sulla vita quotidiana nelle sue opere d'arte.

Nel 1905, Pène du Bois inizia a viaggiare in Europa per studiare con Théophile Steinlen.

Lo stesso anno fa la sua prima visita a Parigi dove dipinge scene di gente alla moda nei caffè.

Nel 1930 ritornò negli Stati Uniti.

In America mette in mostra le immagini prodotte dopo questo periodo molto produttivo all'estero.

Dal 1906, Pène du Bois lavora come illustratore per il New York americano, e comincia a scrivere come critico d'arte.

Nel 1913 diventa l'editor delle Arti e Decorazioni, mentre scriveva anche per il New York Post e le riviste The Arts e Arts Weekly. Fu anche uno dei fondatori della rivista Reality: A Journal of Artists 'Reviews.

Il suo lavoro è in numerose collezioni museali, tra cui lo Smithsonian American Art Museum, la National Gallery of Art, la Phillips Collection, il Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, il Brooklyn Museum, il Whitney Museum of American Art, la Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts ed il Museo d'Arte dell'Università della Virginia.