Georges Bauquier

GEORGES BAUQUIER (Aigues-Mortes, 1910 – Callian, 1997)
"Composition with Tree Branches," 1939.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner: “G. Bauquier 1939”.
Provenance: private collection of Nadia Léger; private collection.
Publications / Exhibitions: Aymar du Chatenet, *Nadia Léger, l’histoire extraordinaire d’une femme de l’ombre*, Paris, 2018. Photo of Fernand Léger’s studio surrounded by his students, with Georges Bauquier in front of the painting, p. 98.
Measurements: 91 x 73 cm.

This work belongs to a particularly significant period in Georges Bauquier’s career, shortly after he enrolled at the École d’Art Contemporain directed by Fernand Léger, where he joined in 1936 and eventually became the studio’s “massier.” Dated 1939, it attests to his early assimilation of Léger’s artistic language: bold volumes, biomorphic forms, sharp hallmarks, and a solidly structured composition.

The motif of the branches is treated not from a naturalistic perspective, but as an autonomous plastic organism. The trunks, with an almost sculptural physicality, are defined by stark light and shadow, taking on a presence akin to that of a modern object. Surrounding them, the geometric planes and the large biomorphic form on the right create a space of great balance, where nature and abstraction coexist within a rigorous structure.

The palette of ochres, grays, earth tones, and blacks reinforces the composition’s density and links it to the atmosphere of the École de Paris of the 1930s. Bauquier does not simply depict branches; rather, he transforms the plant motif into a plastic construction, close to Léger’s ideology, in which object, figure, and pictorial architecture are integrated into a modern image.

The work’s provenance adds a special interest: it belonged to Nadia Léger’s private collection and is documented in a group photograph of Fernand and Nadia Léger’s studio, published in Aymar du Chatenet’s book on Nadia Léger. Its presence in that context reinforces its value as direct evidence of Léger’s circle and of Bauquier’s early period.

Georges Bauquier was a painter, collaborator, and assistant to Fernand Léger, as well as one of the principal curators of his legacy. Together with Nadia Léger, he helped establish the Musée Fernand-Léger in Biot, where he served as director until 1993. His work is represented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Centre International d’Art Contemporain in Carros, among other institutions.