Roger Chastel (French 1897- 1981)
“Untitled” Abstract
circa 1966
Color Etching
19/220
Signed Lower Right in pencil
Swiss Engraving Guild blind-stamp LL (1949-1971)
15¼″ x 22½” paper
10½” x 15¾” plate
$350.00
Edition number
Signature LR in pencil
Engraving Guild Blind-stamp LL
Renouncing his secondary studies, he enrolled in 1912 in the drawing course of the Julian Academy, where he links with the painter Jean Subervie. He passed his entrance examination at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and attended the workshop Fernand Cormon. He returns to the Académie Julian in the studio of Jean-Paul Laurens. Called to fight during the First World War, Roger Chastel was released in 1919 and enrolled at the Académie Ranson de Montparnasse and then followed the Argentine painter Araujo.
Roger Chastel participated in group exhibitions, starting in 1923 at the Salon d’Automne, then at the Salon des Tuileries. Continuing to exhibit in the Parisian salons, Roger Chastel settles permanently in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1928. Chastel missed the Cubism revolution , but nevertheless the influence of Picasso will be evident in his work, as well as that from Bonnard and Matisse. Chastel lived in Cannes during the Nazi occupation.
In 1938, the artist was chosen by France to paint one of the four panels for the United Nations. He won several prestigious prizes (Painting Grand Prize at the first Sao Paolo Biennial in 1951, National Arts Prize in 1961). From 1963 to 1968, he will be head of workshop at the National School of Fine Arts.
Chastel died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1981.