François Gall | Impressionist painter

François Gall (22 March 1912, Hungary - 9 December 1987, France) was an Hungarian-born French🎨 modern impressionist painter.

François Gall was born "Ferenc Erdelyi Gall" in 1912 in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj Napoca).

In 1936, at age 24 years, he moved to Paris.

Early in 1939, Gall returned to Kolosvàr to attend the bedside of his dying father. Once there, he could not return to France as the declaration of war was imminent.

Gall's war time years were finished in Wels, Austria where he was a medic.

He attended to Jewish people. After Austria's liberation from German occupation, Gall returned to his attic at 16 Dauphine Street, Paris and resumed his career as an artist.

In 1949, Gall became a naturalized French citizen.

Gall married Eugenia Chassaing, a young woman from the province of Quercy.

They had three children: Lize-Marie (1947), Jean-François (1948), and Elizabeth-Anne (1956).

In 1954, the family moved to 8 Villa Brune in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. It was purchased from the widow of Jules-Émile Zingg.

Eugenia and the children became subjects and models for Gall's paintings.

Eugenia died in a motor vehicle accident in 1980.

In 1961, while hanging paintings for an exhibition for the Salon des Independents in the Grand Palais, Gall fell several metres and could not work for over a year.

In 1987, at the "House of Artists" in Berryer street, Paris, Gall succumbed to his third heart attack.

• Career

In 1932, Gall exhibited his work at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome.

In 1936, hel joined the workshops of Charles-François-Prosper Guérin and André Devambez in Paris.

He met artists including Christian Bérard, Othon Friesz, André Derain and Pablo Picasso.

In the summer of 1937, Gall made an exhibition of his Parisian experience at the Szalmasy Gallery in Budapest.

In 1938, in Paris, Gall received an honourable mention for his painting, The Spanish Refugees, which was acquired by the French State.

In 1939, Gall won a silver medal🎨 at the Salon d'Asnieres and received a scholarship from the Government of Hungary.

In 1947, the year of major strikes in France, Gall received a Gold Medal🎨 for his painting, Bread for the People.

The Minister for Youth, Arts and Letters, Pierre Bourdan, commended the work.

Also in 1947, Gall exhibited at the Barreiro Gallery in Paris.

Other artists at the gallery were Fernand Léger, Lhote and Lurgat. There, he met Kisling who wanted to photograph Eugenia.

In 1948, Gall joined the group, "Free Art".

He received the Silver Medal🎨 for his work, Exodus.

It was shown at the Galerie Alexandre in Paris.

His work Honfleur was exhibited at the Galerie Saint Philippe du Roule.

After it was exhibited at the gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, Honfleur was purchased by the French government.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Gall's works were exhibited internationally and a permanent exhibition of his works was curated in Bern, Switzerland.

The Marlborough Fine Art Gallery in London curated an exhibition of thirty of Gall's works.

The painter, André Dunoyer de Segonzac commended them.

In 1951, the same gallery presented Gall's exhibition, "Landscapes of France".

In the 1960s, Gall exhibited at the Salon of Painters in Paris.

In 1963, he was awarded the Francis Smith prize at the Palais Galliera.

With his prize money, Gall made a study tour in Portugal.

The resulting works were exhibited in the Portugal House in Paris. Gall became a laureate of the Institut de France.

Five forgeries of Galls works were found at the Dominion Gallery of Max Stern in Canada.

They had been sourced from Eastern Europe. | © Wikipedia

François Gall (1912-1987) pittore Ungherese, naturalizzato francese nel 1949, si forma presso la scuola di Nagybània e perfeziona il suo talento artistico all'Accademia Reale di Belle Arti di Roma.

Grazie ad alcune borse di studio viaggia in tutta Europa stabilendosi infine a Parigi, dove approda nel 1936.

Nella capitale francese frequenta l’Accademia, e incontra, stringendo in alcuni casi durature amicizie, alcune delle più importanti personalità che animano la fervente vita artistica parigina: André Derain, Pablo Picasso, Edith Piaf, Charles Durand Ruel, Raymond Savignac, Gen Paul, Ossipe Zadkine, Moïse Kisling.

Formato accademicamente a lavorare dal vivo, l’artista si sofferma nelle sue prime opere su soggetti sociali: in questa fase i suoi dipinti scaturiscono da una tavolozza scura e testimoniano la miseria dei suoi connazionali ungheresi o quella nascosta dei vicoli di Parigi.

In questo filone, la sua “Pane per il popolo”, che ritrae le lunghe file di famiglie in coda alle panetterie ai tempi della crisi del pane, si aggiudica la Medaglia d’Oro al Salone degli Artisti Francesi, nel 1947, due anni prima della sua naturalizzazione.

Parigi e la sua atmosfera di libertà, insieme alle gioie della famiglia e alla nascita dei suoi tre figli, schiariscono la tavolozza di Gall, che per i suoi dipinti può attingere al vasto campionario umano, paesaggistico e naturalistico che la capitale francese gli offre: l’animata vita parigina, con i suoi scorci urbani e il suo popolo, diventa lo sfondo di tele serene e colorate, nelle quali le protagoniste in primo piano sono spesso la moglie Eugénie e le figlie Marie-Lize ed Elizabeth-Anne.

Gall rimane fedele nel corso della sua carriera allo stile post-impressionista tipicamente francese che tanti riconoscimenti gli ha portato, non solo nell’adottiva Francia ma anche in Europa e Stati Uniti.

Muore nel 1987 a seguito di una crisi cardiaca.

Oggi le sue opere sono esposte in alcuni dei più importanti musei parigini, nella sua natia Ungheria e in molti altri musei nel resto del mondo.