René Charles Bellanger

RENÉ CHARLES BELLANGER (Angicourt, 1895 - Paris, 1964)
Untitled.
Oil on cardboard adhered to board.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 55 x 38 cm.
René Bellanger was a French painter recognized mainly for his landscapes and urban scenes, linked to the French post-impressionist and expressionist tradition of the 20th century. From a very young age he showed interest in painting, inspired by the artist Diogène Maillart, although his parents initially directed him towards industrial drawing studies.
During the First World War he served in the French army, where he continued to practice drawing and engraving even in the trenches. After the war he began to develop his landscape vocation, painting scenes of Alsace and the Rhineland. In 1923 he settled in Dreux with his wife Marie Lucie Zumsteg, combining his artistic activity with the management of a family business of agricultural machinery.the proximity of Paris allowed him to interact with important artistic circles and painters such as Pierre Eugène Montézin, Maximilien Luce and Paul Signac, who influenced his pictorial evolution. He participated regularly in the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon des Indépendants, obtaining in 1936 a silver medal for two views of Dreux.
After World War II, his painting acquired darker and more expressive tones, close to the influence of Maurice de Vlaminck. Bellanger then developed a very personal style.