Gallery 3 (1940-1945 )

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The third Périod ( 1940-1945 )

despite the turnmoil, was specially productive. Together with his wife and in-laws who own a contryside property near Moulins, 350 km in the south, the artist abandons Paris.

In 1937,he is again called up for military service following his naturalization, but as a mere private this time and only for three months of non-active duty (on account of his age – over thirty) between September and November 1939. From then on, he can relax and devote his time to his art. One time he is ordered to help guide errant soldiers from the Second Army to special meeting points and even block 800 khaki clad escapees from Claivaux prison. His knowledge of German serves him in good stead. He is no longer the Paris bohemian, he can settle down and feel comfortable with his beloved young wife, in congenial surroundings, except for his testy in-laws. His rural quietude serves him well as a source of inspiration for his intimist representations of family gatherings but lack of money and the circumstances also explain why he resorts almost exclusively to no other models than his wife, in-laws and friends. All the same, his production increases in quantity and quality, with extremely colorful pastels, depicting women, portraits, landscapes. Through his steel-rimmed spectacles he likes to picture himself gazing benevolently at his subjects from within his pastels, thus representing himself as his own subject-matter, a timeless two dimensional transfer, a cut-out figure of the artist amongst his flesh-and-bone creatures.