strong cardboard on oil

Dimensions : 54,5 cm x 37,5 cm

Signed lower right : P. cluzeau

pond edge in the moonlight

Pierre-Antoine Cluzeau (1884-1963)

Of 18 have 21 September 2008, The Villa Medici in Saint-Maur (94) presented a retrospective of the work of Pierre-Antoine Cluzeau, given an opportunity for everyone to discover a charming place and a fine artist to unknown talent.

Pierre-Antoine Cluzeau arrived in Saint-Maur 1904 and, very attached to this city and its region, it will remain until the end of his life. On the urging of his father, he began a short career in the trade but drawing the much more interested.

In 1908, he was admitted to the Fine Arts and can give free rein to his passion, exercise one's gaze, affirm your technique, especially that of engraving. Unanimously, his masters praise the quality of his work and encourage him to continue in this direction.

WWI

The Great War put an end to this carefree period and constituted a painful ordeal for the entire Cluzeau family.. Pierre-Antoine s’engage, most, asthmatic and in fragile health, he is reformed and assigned as a nurse and housekeeper at the hospital in the colonial garden of Nogent-sur-Marne. His brother Henri was killed on the front in 1917 and his mother, overcome with grief, dies the same year. his father, Auguste, stay alone.

Three years after the war, Pierre-Antoine is getting married. With his wife and two children, he moved into the family home and devoted the rest of his life to his art. The trips he undertakes in all regions of France, in search of healthy clean air, inspired him with a multitude of drawings, engravings, watercolors…

Discreet without being lonely, he rubs shoulders with other artists, participate in exhibitions, produces illustrations and fulfills a number of commissions. His landscapes are evocations of nature but also of life. They are inhabited by characters who go about their business, and testify to the atmosphere of a whole era. The city and the remarkable and picturesque architectural elements also play an important role in his work.

The wounded of the French colonies

In this artistic journey of great wealth, the period spent in hospital Colonial Garden of Nogent-sur-Marne is a parenthesis both interesting and original. We set up this hospital in 1914 inside the Colonial Garden, garden created in 1899 in order to study the development of cultivated plants overseas.

Pierre-Antoine Cluzeau strives to provide assistance to war wounded, originating mainly French colonies. In addition to the nursing he lavishes, he speaks to them, listen, is interested in their personal history, and binds friendships with some.

Gradually, he comes to draw their portrait, in this atmosphere of mutual trust, the soldiers themselves are ordering him. For the majority, Note the artist name, ethnic origin, medals or awards Soldier, and his injuries or ailments he suffers.

These portraits are a unique testimony, sensitive and alive to the First World War. Beyond their undeniable artistic qualities, these fifty portraits of colonial soldiers are all rare images, humanity fingerprints, delicacy and respect. They are valuable to retain the memory of passing time.

A century later, they acquired an exceptional documentary and historical significance.

The waterfront cabaret (1920, estampe) by Pierre Antoine Cluzeau kept by the Museum of Saint-Maur

Source : Catalog Pierre-Antoine Cluzeau (1884-1963) painter engraver. Museum of Saint-Maur

Another work by the artist proposed by the Gallery.