ArtistQuellier, Andre

Artist Years1925-2010

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleVillage House

Yearca. 1960-70

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCamvas: 14 X 11 inches

Accession NumberRC1366

NotesAndré Quellier was a French realistic painter born in 1925 in Paris where he died in 2010. He began painting at the age of 11. He entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1941 and attended the classical painting classes of Jean Dupas and Edmond Heuzé. He followed, during the Occupation, and in the years that followed, the work of choreographer Katherine Dunham with whom he collaborated for the settings but also to take sketches of the . She recognizes him that he has been able to capture the spirit of his ballets. He illustrated the French version of his book on Les Danses d'Haiti and worked as an illustrator for other publishing houses. In 1945 he received a prize from the Institut de l'Académie française and in 1955 a prize from the Casa Velasquez allowing him to become a resident of the Casa Velasquez for his 25th class of 1955.

Unsensitive to modern art, he became interested in the performing arts and in 1961 produced a series of 104 paintings dedicated to the mime Marceau He painted portraits of several personalities in the world of the arts: Brigitte Bardot, Gérard Philipe, Jean Cocteau (acquired in 1990 by the Los Angeles Museum) and Marcel Jouhandeaunote 1, but also Mother Teresa, John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and Félix Houphouet-Boigny. From his studio in Montmartre, he prepared exhibitions throughout France (Paris, Galerie des Dauphins in Sainte-Maxime, Saint-Tropez) and the world (Japan, New York, London, Moscow, Leningrad or Tehran). He also made temporary exhibitions at the Chapel of the Penitents in Ramatuelle from 1974 to 1981n and maintained a workshop in Fresnay-sur-Sarthe.

In addition to portraits and subjects related to the performing arts, landscapes and still lifes are among the main subjects of André Quellier's works. He focused on religious and literary subjects, a large series of about 400 paintings on the Fables de La Fontaine, the Si Yeou Ki, 22 paintings on the tales of Rudyard Kipling, and paintings on different tales (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Ricquet à la Houppe, Cinderella).

André Quellier was influenced by classical painters: Hans Holbein, Jean Fouquet, Jean Clouet and by the Italian primitives.

After WWII, Quellier worked with the American dancer Katherine Dunham, creating sketches, drawings and pastels for her performances in Paris. They worked together for five years. He also illustrated Katherine Dunham's French translation of her thesis devoted to the Dances of Haiti, published in 1950 by Editions Fasquelle and prefaced by Claude Lévi-Strauss.

One of André Quellier's most famous creations is a series of more than a hundred paintings centered on the Marceau mimenote. They were presented in 1961 at an exhibition and again in 1967 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. One of the portraits of the mime, Bip on Stage, was acquired by the Ministry of Culture for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

André Quellier made works of sacred art for several years, making paintings and large wooden panels for the chapel of the Penitents in Ramatuelle. He painted many paintings about biblical episodes (Jonas swallowed by the whale, the drama of Abel and Cain) and on subjects of the Catholic martyrology (Saint Sebastian, Saint George slaying the dragon, Saint Anne, the Three Wise).

From 1991 he began the creation of many paintings to illustrate the works of Jean de La Fontaine, based on the engravings of Jean-Baptiste Oudry and Charles Eisen. They were the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History thanks to Henry de Lumley, then in Béziersnote.

André Quellier died while planning an exhibition at the Maison Caillebotte in Yerres. The exhibitions opened after his death in Montmorency in 2014.
(source: wikipedia.org)