Constantine Kluge Paintings

Constantin Kluge (French, 1912-2003) Signed: C. Kluge, (lower, right) " Le Café Rouge " (titled on stretcher verso) Oil on Canvas 24 1/8" x 36" Housed in a 1" gold metal leaf ...

View of the Pont Marie in Paris. Oil, canvas, 73 x 72 cm signed at lower right corner. On the reverse original stamp of the Société des Artistes Français, Salon 1958, R. Constantin ...

A circa 1950’s oil on canvas, the light and brushwork really has a distinctive style and elegance resulting in a beautiful depiction of a French market with the church to the back an...

A brilliant oil on canvas, beautiful color and light capturing the environment perfectly. Signed lower left. This painting is not currently framed but a suitable frame can be sourced...

Constantine Kluge "Paris, Bl. Montparnasse" Oil on Canvas Signed, C.1960 32 x 45 inches Wally Findlay gallery label verso Constantin Kluge (1912 - 2003 ) He was born in Riga, Latvia, on January 29, 1912, in Russia.. His father was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of Riga and his mother a Professor of Literature. Kluge's father was drafted into the Czar's army in 1914. Then the chaos of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Civil War completely uprooted the family. They moved frequently, always eastward, arriving in Manchuria in 1920. Here the little boy learned to speak Mandarin. In 1925 the émigré family moved again, this time to the French "concession" of Shanghai, where Kluge would graduate from the French Municipal High School. By the time he was seventeen, he was a very active member of the Shanghai Art Club. At this period of his life he also took up the violin and cello, and later in Paris gave music lessons to help meet his expenses. Meanwhile, his parents had decided that pure art was not a dependable career, and so in 1931 Kluge left Shanghai for Paris to study architecture. He spent six years at the E'cole des Beaux-Arts and in 1937 graduated with the title of French Government Architect. The years spent studying and living in the Latin Quarter of Paris had created in Kluge a strong attachment to the characteristic scenes of Paris, and, instead of returning immediately to Shanghai and his family, he stayed on in Paris for six months painting views of Paris in oils, purely to portray and preserve the scenes he so loved. The childhood years spent in the Orient had contributed to his love of painting. His professor of Chinese had taught him, from the age of ten, a respect for the handling of the brush, and the attitude of the Orientals toward the beauties of nature drew the young artist to the depiction of beauty and away from the vogue for the ugly and sordid in painting. When Kluge returned to China, he practiced his profession of architecture for a time. But when his friends persuaded him to exhibit his paintings, the exhibitions were so successful and aroused such enthusiasm that Kluge felt that painting, his first love, could afford him a livelihood. Kluge spent the years of World War 11 in Shanghai convinced that he avoided trouble with the Japanese occupiers only because of the respect and love the Japanese people have for painting. In mid-1946 he accepted an architectural post in Hong Kong and continued to paint in his spare time. In March, 1950, amid rumors that the Chinese Communists might invade Hong Kong, Constantin Kluge left Asia for good and returned to his beloved Paris. Already a mature and successful painter by the time he reached Paris, it is not surprising that he won an award and considerable attention at the Paris Salon in 1951. Since that time he was a frequent exhibitor in the Salon shows, which proved to be his gateways to ever increasing public attention. Kluge was a member of the Societe' des Artistes Francais, and his works won prizes at their Salon. In 1961 he was awarded the Medaille d'Argent as well as the special Raymond Perreau prize given by the Taylor Foundation at the Salon. In 1962 he received the coveted Gold Medal of the Salon. In 1990, Kluge earned one of the most prestigious non-military awards...