Georges Gimel
Encyclopedia
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
painter of portraits, landscapes, mountain landscapes, still lifes and flowers. He was also a wood carver, lithographer, illustrator, set designer, sculptor, and enamel painter.
Biography
Gimel was born at DomèneDomène
Domène is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France....
(Isère), France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He lived at Domène and at Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
, where he studied at the Ecole des Arts Industriels, until the age of 16 at which time he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Gimel stayed in Paris for 20 years; thereafter he split his time between Megève, Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
, Grenoble and Paris. He took part in both: the First World War and the Second World War.
In 1916 he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
of Paris, at the Studio of Jean-Paul Laurens
Jean-Paul Laurens
Jean-Paul Laurens , was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style.Born in Fourquevaux, he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexandre Bida...
and at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. After the war in 1919 he returned at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, at the Studio of Jean-Antoine Injalbert and at the same time he will become a pupil of the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
and also worked together with his warfriend the sculptor Henri Bouchard
Henri Bouchard
Henri Bouchard , was a French sculptor.The son of a carpenter, Bouchard was born in Dijon. He was educated at the Académie Julian and in the studio of Louis-Ernest Barrias before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He took the Prix de Rome in 1901...
.
Gimel was the artistic director of the literary review Tentatives with Henri Petiot (Daniel Rops) for a special edition dedicated to Stendhal
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
. He created numerous wood carvings, of which the portrait of Déodat de Séverac
Déodat de Séverac
Déodat de Séverac was a French composer.-Biography:...
was owned by the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
He took part in the Salon d'Automne
Salon d'Automne
In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon...
and the Salon des Indépendants from 1921 until 1934. Gimel created the largest painting of the Salon d’Automne in 1927:” La cueillette des amandes”.
His talent was noticed very early on by Andry Farcy, curator of the Museum of Grenoble
Museum of Grenoble
The Museum of Grenoble is a city museum of Fine Arts and antiques in the city of Grenoble in France.Located on the left bank of the Isère, place Lavalette, it is known both for its collections of ancient art for its collections of modern and contemporary art..-History:The Museum of Grenoble was...
, who supported the “Peintres Modernes” and by the art critic Félix Fénéon
Félix Fénéon
Félix Fénéon was a Parisian anarchist and art critic during the late 19th century...
.
Gimel’s lithographs sought after by collectors are composed of up to 14 colors. He worked as well on various works of portraiture as painting: winter landscapes, bathers, sports figures, flowers and marines. His lifelike characterizations and colors reflected himself.
An artistic dynamo, he linked the schools of beaux arts and commercial/artistic design: He created fabric designs for clothing designers Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion have been likened to Picasso's contributions to twentieth-century art.-Early life and career:...
and Jean Patou
Jean Patou
- Early life :Patou was born in Normandy, France in 1880. Patou's family's business was tanning and furs. Patou worked with his uncle in Normandy, then moved to Paris in 1910, intent on becoming a couturier.-1910s - World War I and later:...
.
In Paris ,numerous exhibitions at the Art Gallery’s: Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Galerie Bignou, Galerie Kleinmann, Galerie Berri-Raspail, Galerie Charpentier, Galerie Katia Granoff, gained him worldwide recognition.
In 1930, Gimel began to create immense frescoes such as the one at the principal office of the Société des Chaux et Ciment Lafarge a Paris.He got married with Madeleine Louise Jeannest at the Vésinet near Paris,in 1931.
In 1933 he created a Station of the Cross which was controversial because of its modernism. His religious frescoes were exhibited at the Galerie Jean Charpentier, as well as the lithographs for Station of the Cross with an introduction by Léon Daudet
Léon Daudet
Léon Daudet was a French journalist, writer, an active monarchist, and a member of the Académie Goncourt.-Move to the right:...
in the Editions jeanne Bucher, in January 1934. One of this works will be owned by the Vatican and another by the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. Gimel’s work belongs to the school of religious art led by Georges Desvallières
Georges Desvallières
George Desvallières was a French painter.A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel Legouvé, and received a religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian with Tony Robert-Fleury and with Jules Valadon at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts...
and Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
.
Architect Henry Jacques Le Même designed his chalet " La Fresque " at Megève and Gimel decorated the façades with avant-garde frescoes.
In 1937 Gimel took part in the Exposition Universelle de Paris and there he created the interior design for the Pavillon du Dauphiné.
At the end of World War II in 1944, his book Le Calvaire de la Résistance of pen and ink drawings of war scenes was published, some of which scenes had been exhibited at the Galerie Katia Granoff in Paris in April 1940.
Following this, he devoted himself to his art and to the making of his enamels where his genius allowed him to combine technical and practical aspects to create an indestructible form of enamel painting.
In 1949, he exhibited 91 enamel works at the Art Gallery Bernheim Jeune in Paris. Later, thanks to the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, several of his enamels were sent abroad to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(Italy) and Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
, (Germany) others were part of a traveling exhibition in the United States who started at the Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
in 1954.
In 1956 Gimel created his Stations of the Cross in enamel for the church Jean-Baptiste at Megève. He also was asked by the Rotary-club des Alpes de Haute-Provence for a major conference on the subject of enamels, assisted by his friend Jean Giono
Jean Giono
Jean Giono was a French author who wrote works of fiction set in the Provence region of France.-First period:...
.
On January 21, 1962, a sunny Sunday, he died suddenly while ice skating with a young woman at the skating rink at Megève
Megève
Megève is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.Megève is a famous ski resort near the Mont-Blanc in the French Alps...
(Haute-Savoie).
Illustrated works
- Dévigne, Roger (1921), Janot le jeune hommes aux ailes d'or. Paris: L'Encrier.
- Cœuroy, André (1921), Musiciens. Paris: Nouvel Essor.
- Faure, Gabriel (1922), Printemps. Paris: R.Chiberre.
- Voragine, Jacques de (1922), Sainte Agnès. Paris: Nouvel Essor.
- Hervieu, Louise (1924), l'Âme du cirque. Paris: Librairie de France.
- Gimel, Georges en Petiot, Henry (1924), StendhalStendhalMarie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
. Chambéry: Tentatives. - Gimel, Georges (1933), Chemin de Croix. Paris: Jeanne Bucher.
- Gimel, Georges (1944), Le Calvaire de la Résistance. Grenoble: Didier et Richard.