FRENCH SCHOOL, early 20th century - Lot 181

ONLINE SALES BY APPOINTMENT

LOTS MUST BE PICKED UP ON JANUARY 19TH IN THE CANNES AREA.

AFTER THIS DATE, LOTS WILL BE CONSIDERED ABANDONED.

ONLY TRANSPORTER FOR THIS SALE: MBE Cannes

mbe3218@mbefrance.fr / 04 22 32 91 67

A SECOND TRANSPORT WILL BE ORGANIZED FOR THE POITOU AND PARIS REGIONS.

The address of the workshop will be communicated a few days before delivery. Please bring the necessary material for the pick-up, no packaging will be provided.

NO CONDITION REPORT FOR THIS SALE - THE SALE IS ONLY DEMATERIALISED - NO MEMBER OF THE FIRM IS PRESENT ON SITE.

MICHEL LE ROY (1916 - 2008)

Michel Le Roy trained in Paris in the late 1930s, in direct contact with the avant-garde. Very early on, he became a disciple of Robert Delaunay, whose influence was decisive in his first period: a taste for color, a search for rhythm, construction through contrasts and chromatic vibrations. The teachings of Vassily Kandinsky and Albert Gleizes completed this demanding training, nourishing a body of work that was both structured and deeply sensitive.

The Second World War marked an abrupt break. Mobilized, taken prisoner and interned on several occasions, Michel Le Roy nonetheless pursued an intense artistic practice, notably through drawings made in captivity, works of necessity where the line goes to the essential.

After the war, his pictorial language broadened: landscapes, figures, still lifes and freer compositions testify to a constant back-and-forth between construction and emotion.

From the 1960s onwards, critics began to focus on what was to become a veritable signature: the "Le Roy blues" series, characterized by large monochromes that borrowed from the codes of symbolism.

At the same time, his deliberately spare, sometimes austere still-lifes reveal a more expressive vein, at times evoking the gravity and frontality of Bernard Buffet.

Exhibiting regularly in France and abroad, Michel Le Roy took part in the Premier Salon d'Art Contemporain de Mandelieu-La Napoule in 1966, alongside major artists of the XXᵉ century such as Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy and Francis Picabia, confirming his place within the art scene of his time.

For the first time, Michel Le Roy's entire studio is offered at auction. Paintings, works on paper and preparatory works enable us to follow the development of this Ecole de Paris artist over several decades.