French Painting of a Reading Young Woman by Louis André Berthommé Saint André

Louis Bethomme Saint Andre (1905-1977) is one of the great representatives of French figurative painting in the 20th century. A pupil of Cormon at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and of the Pierre Laurens studio, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1924 to 1929, winning the Silver Medal. He retained from his training a taste for well-learnt techniques, but from his earliest works he was a modernist: his constructions show decomposed forms inspired by Cézanne, while retaining a keen sense of rigour. He never strayed from realism, but his highly coloured, sometimes incisive palette and his freedom of representation gave his painting a bite and acidity that placed him among the great talents of his time. Winner of the Abd-el-Tif prize (1925), he spent time in Algeria, where he learned how to make light vibrate in the colours of his palette. Between the wars, his inspiration was close to surrealism. During the Occupation, he became very "fauve", in reaction to the darkness of the war. Louis' paintings magnify women. His nudes are both sensual and colourful. He also devoted himself to erotic illustrations, where he created more muted atmospheres, where the subject and composition took precedence over colour. He illustrated Verlaine, Crébillon fils and Voltaire's erotic tales. Haute-couture called on his talents. Before the war he exhibited regularly at all the major Salons: from 1928 at the Salon d'Automne, at the Salon des Beaux-Arts (1934 to 1936) and at the Salon des Tuileries from 1935. After the war, he exhibited at the Salon Comparaison and the Salon des peintres Témoins de notre temps, and was president of the Salon du dessin et de la peinture à l'eau. He exhibited internationally, in Europe, the USA and Japan, and in 1977, just before his death, he was awarded the Grand Prix des Peintres Témoins de leur Temps (Bibliography Michel Droit. Berthommé Saint-André. Éditions de la revue moderne, 1981).