Biography
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| BRIANCHON Biography |
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Brianchon was born in Fresnay sur Sarthe on 11 January 1899. He died in Paris on 1 March 1979. His entire life was devoted to Art in all its forms.
In 1918, he entered the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs de Paris and was awarded the Prix Blumenthal, which allowed him to travel to Spain where he studied the works of Velasquez and Greco.
He was appointed Professor at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs de Paris in 1936, then Professeur Maître d’Atelier (Professor and Studio Director) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1949.
In 1953, upon request of the British government, he travelled to England where he painted the highlights of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation ceremony. In 1953, he was raised to the rank of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by French president, Vincent Auriol.
Starting in 1925, he began creating stage settings for the Opéra de Paris. Throughout many years, he signed stage settings, stage curtains and costumes for the Opéra de Paris, the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, and the Théâtre Marigny for the Compagnie Madeleine Renaud-Jean Louis Barrault.
Refusing to limit himself to only a few themes, he painted highly diverse works.
Many of his paintings were inspired by the time he spent backstage and on stage while creating stage settings (Danseuses, Bals Masqués, Arlequins, etc.).
He painted intimate portrayals of familiar districts in Paris, always animated with characters, pedestrians in the streets of Passy, or in the city’s gardens. Still lifes, nudes, flowers. Everything which, in his eyes, could be conveyed through painting, became a picture.
In 1955, the landscape theme became a central element in his oeuvre. He had just acquired a residence in the Périgord, and the surrounding countryside inspired splendid paintings in which the grand colourist subtlety expressed himself using hushed or vibrant colour palettes, and rare and complex tones that belonged to him alone. In his large studio in Truffière, he posed stiff lifes that he painted haloed by the beautiful golden light streaming in through the windows.
He was also a talented illustrator of some of the renowned works of French literature, including the Théâtre Complet d’Andre Gide (8 volumes).
The most exigent of art critics and writers devoted texts and books to him, including François Daulte, George Besson, Claude-Roger Marx, Marcel Zahar, Richard Heyd, and Robert Rey.
Major exhibitions and events have been organised by several galleries and museums: Venice Biennale, Pavillon de la France (1934), Galerie Louis Carré (1942 and 1943), Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre (1951), London’s Wildenstein Gallery (1951, 1960), Galerie Alfred Daber (1954,1956), David B. Findlay Galleries in New York (1960, 1964, 1970, 1975, 2004), Neuchâtel’s Musée des Beaux-Arts (1962), Galerie des Beaux Arts Wildenstein in Paris (1962), London’s Arthur Tooth Gallery (1968), Geneva’s Galerie des Granges (1972, 1974, 1978), Neuchâtel’s Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (1975), Tokyo’s Daimaru Galleries (1977), Fondation de l’Hermitage Lausanne(1989-90), Musée de Tésé in Le Mans (1999).
His works are housed in numerous museums: Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée Toulouse Lautrec in Albi, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Belfort, Musée Boudin in Honfleur, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, Musée Calvet in Avignon, Le Mans’ Museum, Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, Neuchâtel’s Museum, Museum of Rotterdam, Fondation de l’Hermitage in Lausanne.
The current exhibition has been organised on the occasion of the publication of Olivier Daulte and Pierre Antoine Brianchon’s CATALOGUE DE L’OEUVRE PEINT, which will be presented during the vernissage.
