Pierre LeLong Art

'Stopover in Port' (Escale), oil on canvas, by Pierre Lelong (circa 1960s-70s). A ship replenishes its cargo in the early hours of the morning. The pier ...

Pierre Emile Gabriel Lelong (24 March 1908 – 29 June 1984) was a neo-Impressionist painter based in France, winner of the Grand Prix des Peintres Témoins de Leur Temps in 1972. He is considered one of the postwar group of artists referred to as La Nouvelle Ecole de Paris. Pierre Emile Lelong was born in 1908 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He began to draw and paint at an early age. In the 1920s he took classes at the Atelier Julien in Paris. In about 1933 he started to paint again and by 1935 had rented a studio in Montmartre (91, rue Caulaincourt). His work appeared in newspapers and magazines. He first exhibited his work at the Salon des Indépendants in 1935, and as part of a group at the Galerie Rotgé. He later destroyed much of his earliest work, so few paintings from this period survive. In 1939 he moved his studio to 30 quai de Passy (later the avenue President Kennedy). When World War II broke out, he became a liaison officer for a British regiment. He was taken prisoner at Dunkirk and sent to Camp Oflag IV-D near Dresden. He spent his time sketching his fellow prisoners and the events in the camp. He was later transferred to an outpost of Stalag IV-A, at Zittau, near the Czech frontier. After at least one failed attempt at escape, he succeeded in 1942 and returned to France, where he turned his sketches into a book Une Vie de Camp, published in 1943. He spent the remainder of the war in Trinidad with his wife’s family. During this period (1943–45), he worked on his painting technique, which had been interrupted by his earlier military service and professional career. He and his wife moved to New York City after the war, where their only son, Jean-François, was born. The family returned to France in 1947, and Lelong took a studio at 10, rue des Batignolles. During the late 1940s, he produced illustrations for various journals, including Cavalcade, Paysage, La Pensée Française, Lisez-moi, Champs-Elysées, Paris-Dimanche, and Fantasia. La Galerie Doucet arranged a solo exhibition for Pierre Lelong...

Modernist style painting of a French cafe. Oil on canvas by Pierre Lelong (1908-1984). Provenance from the Cornell Museum. Signed lower right, "P. Lel...