André Verdet - The black parrot, 1992, Signed lithograph

André Verdet : (1913-2004) was a poet, painter, sculptor, and ceramist. He lived his whole life in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, from 1918 until his death in 2004. He was acquainted with the most of the important artists of his time, Jean Giono, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Édouard Pignon, Paul Éluard, Brajo Fuso, Alberto Magnelli , Jacques Prévert, Jon Anderson... He was a great and active resistant during World War II. He got arrested in 1944 by the Gestapo, jailed at the Fresnes prison, sent to Compiègne camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald, before being freed in 1945. He was officer of the Legion of Honnour, received the medal of Resistance and Deportation, and commander of Arts and Litterature (commandeur des Arts et des Lettres).