Bernard Boutet de Monvel | Art déco artist

Bernard Boutet de Monvel (1881-1949) was a French painter, sculptor, engraver, fashion illustrator and interior decorator. Although first known for his etchings, he earned notability for his paintings, especially his geometric paintings from the 1900s and his Moroccan paintings made during World War I.

In both Europe and the United States, where he often traveled, he also became known as a portrait painter for high society clients.

Boutet de Monvel was simultaneously working in oil painting, especially portraits, which he began to exhibit at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1903.

He subsequently began sending works to the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants as well.

In 1907, he began to regularly send his works to exhibitions in the United States at the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh.

Early paintings like Les boucheries (Butcher's stalls, 1904) were starkly composed with bright pigments and strong blue shadows.

In 1904, after a field trip to Florence, he suddenly shifted to a pointillist style.

The light in the paintings became more vibrant and perspective disappeared.

Examples of work in this style include Rita del Erido (1907) and Le Sophora (The Sophora tree, ca. 1907).

His 1908 self-portrait entitled The Portrait, which showed him in the Nemours countryside on a stormy day flanked by two greyhounds, earned him critical recognition and nomination to membership in the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

In 1909, Boutet de Monvel exhibited at Devambez Gallery a manifesto painting entitled Esquisse (Sketch, 1908), a portrait made using only a ruler and a pair of compasses.

This geometric vision of a dandy drew critical censure and mockery of it as "rectilinear painting".

Nonetheless, it laid the foundations for his signature style and helped to develop a path towards the later style known as Art Deco.

Working with a refined geometric linearity, he reduced his palette to black and a few greys and earth tones handled as flat tints.

He also tended to draw from a low perspective angle to accentuate the monumentality of his subjects.

Works from this period include Comte Pierre de Quinsonas (1913); and MM. André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Jean-Louis Boussingault (1914). | Source: © Wikipedia

Bernard Boutet de Monvel (1881-1949) è stato un pittore, scultore, incisore, illustratore di moda e decoratore d'interni Francese.

Sebbene inizialmente conosciuto per le sue acqueforti, divenne famoso per i suoi dipinti, in particolare per i suoi dipinti geometrici del 1900 ed i suoi dipinti marocchini realizzati durante la prima guerra mondiale.

Sia in Europa che negli Stati Uniti, dove viaggiò spesso, divenne noto anche come un ritrattista per committenze dell'alta società.