It is said that André Devambez got his taste for aerial views from having always lived on high floors. Born in Paris, this painter, illustrator and engraver received all the honors during his lifetime (Prix de Rome, professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Commander of the Legion of Honor)… before sinking into oblivion. . At the Petit Palais, an unprecedented retrospective, mounted with the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts, allows us to rediscover the prolific work of this jack-of-all-trades with fierce fantasy. Because from history painting to humorous drawing, from the illustration of tales and legends to the documentary representation of the ravages of the Great War, from the portrait of academicians to a delightful children’s album via advertisements, a series of large formats on the Commune, the decor of the French Embassy in Vienna or its “Toddlers”, paintings very popular with the public… we understand why the exhibition is titled “Vertiges de l’imagination”, so much that of Devambez led him to multiply large deviations and pirouettes, approaching with originality all kinds of genres, formats and subjects – some, until then, never painted.
Scenes from Parisian life
Born in 1867, Devambez grew up in Paris in the engraving and publishing business created by his father. And if he makes himself known as an original artist, “both observant and whimsical”, as we read in the beautiful catalog that accompanies the exhibition, it “ends his career as a 19th century man lost in the era of the avant-gardes”. This curator was nonetheless fascinated by the «innovations modernes», willingly associating photography (which captivated him) with his artistic research. Now, in the air (The only bird that flies above the clouds, 1910) as underground, what impresses with him is a sense of composition and framing that gives his still images a cinematographic quality. This is particularly the case in his scenes of Parisian life – the bubbling of which he appreciated.
cordon of police officers
In the cafes, Devambez humanely sketches a fauna caught up in his thoughts or his more or less agitated conversations. At the Théâtre du Châtelet, he captures the rustling audience from heaven before the performance (Concert Column). In the metro, a subject he worked on for thirty years, he painted men, women and children on the platforms during rush hour. The next moment, the subway has passed, the theater lights have gone out, the glass is emptied, and the crowd has dispersed. his masterpiece, load (1902-1903), shows a cordon of police officers chasing demonstrators on the crowded Grands Boulevards. Exterior at night, wide shot: the scene seen from above and at an angle, lit by the light of street lamps, signs and bars, gives the vivid impression of a sudden collective movement. Within the fray, a few touches are enough to distinguish the silhouettes, their stride, the movement of their bodies in contact with others, and almost their excitement, in this flight towards the lower right corner of the painting. It is an overflow which suddenly overflows the work itself. And which, without warning us, makes us feel the thrill.