Marcel GROMAIRE (1892-1971) painter. 19 L.A.S., 1913-1936, t - Lot 687

Lot 687
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Marcel GROMAIRE (1892-1971) painter. 19 L.A.S., 1913-1936, t - Lot 687
Marcel GROMAIRE (1892-1971) painter. 19 L.A.S., 1913-1936, to his friend the painter Albert Huyot; 45 pages of various sizes (pale ink or faded to some letters), 12 envelopes. Beautiful friendly and artistic correspondence, mainly during the war years, when Gromaire was mobilized as an interpreter at the American base of Saint-Nazaire, and Huyot at the camouflage section of Bergues, and in which the painter gives himself up to reflections on his art and on the contemporary painting January 7, 1916 (postcard from the army). He thinks only of being able to "rent studios in Montparnasse, and finally work frantically, for the pleasure of beauty itself. We are in great need of it. At least this war will have put us in a position to study men up close"; he hopes to see "all hints of impressionism and cubo-mania disappear"; he has news of "the friend Kickert" who is exhibiting in Holland. Paris, March 24, 1917. On leave, he thinks that "our way of seeing will eventually dominate, but it will take a serious struggle. [...] Notice that, sensing this, all the Cubo-Impressionists grouped themselves around Matisse, despite their formal opposition. Because they feel that Matisse has a sensitivity that they do not have, and that despite his shortcomings, he is someone and the last of the great impressionists"... - Saint-Nazaire August 9. Talks about Boussingault, whose painting he esteems and whom he would be happy to meet, and about Segonzac, "a beautiful, virile and honest talent"; he hopes to have an exhibition this winter and has no news of Kickert. - December 10. He draws and has done some oil paintings. "It would be wrong to dismiss the whole of Cubism, which, if it has achieved little, has strongly suspected at one time what might be. It is true that since then it has fallen into an impressionism different from the other more by the aspect than by the spirit. Will the art of the immediate future be an agitated, tense art, direct representation of contemporary pain and very realistic? He believes that the time goes rather towards the calm " formidable and a little ironic calm of the great Chinese and the most beautiful Rembrandt. Calmness a little tragic also of Ruysdael who does not want to represent men "...Saint-Nazaire May 24, 1918. He still leads the same monotonous life: "I made in Nantes, with Laboureur, a small exhibition of engravings and watercolors. We met about twenty sympathizers", and he sold five watercolors; but the rest of the public and the local critics were contemptuous... He reads Montaigne, du Bellay and Rabelais "a powerful, healthy and personal life"; he has no news from Kickert and "Dubreuil is in the army as an air force draftsman". - July 10. He encourages Huyot to do engraving and talks about André Mare: "his painting is not ugly but his decorative sense is preferable. He has made very nice bindings in bright colors well harmonized". He has read the Vie des Martyrs, but does not have the courage to read Civilisation by Georges Duhamel, "too painful at the present time"... He asks Huyot to send him postcards from Bergues and its surroundings, his beloved region. - July 31. He received the postcards: "I had a great pleasure to see again the pictures of my North. [...] I started engraving with a penknife. It is a completely different craft, purer as a technique, more restricted as effects" and he explains his precedence for the printing. - October 1st. On engraving: "It is a complete medium [...] but it is very limited and only suitable for a violent and very summarized expression. [I am in the process of finishing my series of the Deadly Sins. I only have the seventh to engrave"... - December 31. He awaits his demobilization: "I do my best not to forget that I am a painter by engraving some small woodcuts but I would like to paint for good with oil colors and that I be left alone. Terrible ambition!" He went to the North: "At home everything is more or less in place and my people are well. But what disasters in so many places! His album L'Homme de Troupe was published by La Belle Édition and his Péchés Capitaux were published by Lutetia. He hoped to be demobilized in August "to go to the North and "put it on". He saw the Chinese paintings at Bernheim's: "What Art, with a big monumental A - Saw also the temple of cubism at Rosenberg's; one would think one was at the French Artists and yet so much talent is stifled, Picasso, Braque, Léger and even Gris... Obscurantism, what stupidity"... September 29, 1921. The death of his young uncle who was for him "an affectionate big brother", leads him to reflections: "All art is an effort of life to probe the unknown, with the help of intuition. And then the impulse which carries us to create, does it not bring us closer, with each discovery, of the goal of the con birth that veils the mystery of the death. To find, that brings us closer a little
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