Marcel GROMAIRE - Man and woman, signed engraving

Marcel Gromaire : (July 24, 1892 – April 11, 1971) was a French painter. He painted many works on social subjects, and is often associated with Social Realism. He was born in Noyelles-sur-Sambre, France. He Law but quickly gave up. He frequented studios in Montparnasse, and attended classes at Académie de La Palette. During WWI, he was wounded in 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. Gromaire returned to Paris, working in a Paris studio, his subject matter of rich dark ochers and browns in his paintings in an ordered wealth of textural sensation when transferring the reality of his studio and its light and contents, onto his canvases. Gromaire used his studio as a standard, a filter; it was more than just a place to paint. An encounter with the collector, Dr. Girardin, established his career as an artist when he purchased the entirety of the work of Gromaire. When Dr. Girardin died in 1953, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris received 78 oil paintings as well as a collection of watercolors. In 1933, A retrospective at the Kunsthalle de Baie established the importance of his body of works. In 1937, his work was exhibited by orders of the State at the Paris Exposition Internationale. From 1939-1944, he resided at Aubusson and participated in the renewal of the tapestry movement with Jean Lurcat. He was named a professor at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs from 1950 until 1962. Gromaire relocated to the United States and became a member of the Jury for the Carnegie Prize, which went to Jacques Villon that year (1950). A Carnegie prize (not first) was awarded to Gromaire himself in 1952. In 1954, he was made commander of the Légion d'honneur and in 1958, the Grand Prix National des Arts. He died in Paris.