Camille Hilaire - Litho. Titel, Ville Romaine - Sold

Condition: excellent. Edition: 84/150. Numbers in the photo may vary. Dimensions: H. 65 x W. 50 cm.
Hilaire started painting at a young age. At the age of fifteen he discovered the work of Albrecht Dürer in the city library of Metz and began to make copies of it. Some of the drawings he had put up in a bookshop caught the attention of Jean Giono and Nicolas Untersteller, the director of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. So he enrolled at Beaux-Arts. Thanks to a scholarship, Hilaire traveled through Spain and Italy in 1933 and 1934, drawing inspiration from the art he encountered. Both his painting and tapestry express the beauty and diversity of the places he traveled through. He was drafted into the army and took part in France's campaign, was captured, escaped and returned to Paris in early 1941. Condemned to secrecy, he enrolled under an assumed name at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the occupation. In 1942–1943, while remaining at Beaux-Arts, he also came under the tutelage of the Cubist artist André Lhote whom he befriended, and soon after his assistant. Hilaire's painting shows influences from Cubism but without the rigidity typical of the early years of the movement. He was then appointed Professor of Beaux-Arts in Nancy, where he taught from 1947 to 1958, and then in Paris until 1968. He received the Prix de Venise in 1948 and the Prix de la Casa de Velázquez in 1950.