Bernard Boutet de Monvel

BERNARD BOUTET DE MONVEL (Paris, 1881- Azores, 1949).
"La rue de la Paix", 1907.
Oil on tablex.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 44 x 60 cm; 62 x 78 cm (frame).

Night scene starring a carriage that advances before a shop window illuminated with a golden light that dominates the scene, creating an expressive play of light and shadow. Despite the apparent simplicity of the subject, the author not only relays a scene of everyday life from a lyrical and exalted perspective, but also immortalizes a specific moment in society prior to industrialization. The Delaware Art Museum preserves in its collection an aquatint by the author where the same subject is reproduced, using the same composition.

Bernard Boutet was a multifaceted French artist, noted for his work as a painter, engraver and illustrator. He began his artistic training in 1897 with Luc-Olivier Merson and Jean Dampt, and in 1898 he learned the technique of color aquatint, in which he became a master. His early works portrayed both close-up people and rural scenes. From 1903 he began to exhibit in the main art salons and, after a trip to Florence in 1904, he adopted a more luminous and pointillist style. In 1908 he achieved great recognition with a self-portrait and a year later he presented an innovative work in geometric style, a precursor of Art Deco.
At the same time, he collaborated as an illustrator for fashion magazines such as Femina, Gazette du Bon Ton, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He was also known for his elegance, being considered an icon of Parisian dandyism.
During World War I, he served as a bombardier and participated in missions in Macedonia and Romania, where he was decorated. In 1917 he was posted to Morocco, where he created a series of sober and geometric paintings of cities such as Fez, Rabat and Marrakech, which would influence artists such as Jacques Majorelle.
After the war, he exhibited his Moroccan works in 1925. He married the Chilean heiress Delfina Edwards Bello in 1921. He resumed his career as a portraitist and interior designer, participating in decoration projects and continuing his collaborations in fashion and magazines. In the 1920s he began to travel to the United States, where he achieved great success as a portraitist of high society. After the crash of 1929, he focused on painting modern urban landscapes of New York and Chicago, standing out for his style between photographic realism and abstraction.
In the 1930s he portrayed figures of international nobility, such as the maharajah of Indore. During World War II, he remained in Paris and worked on a series on the bouquinistes de la Seine. In 1946 he returned to New York to prepare an exhibition. He continued to paint portraits until his death in a plane crash in the Azores, on the same flight in which the boxer Marcel Cerdan died.