French, 1870-1950
French painter, illustrator and stage designer, disdaining the traditional art schools, Georges D’Espagnat studied part-time at the Académie Colarossi in Paris under Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois and Jean-André Rixens but was mostly self-taught. In 1891, he exhibited at the Salon des Refusés and the following year at the Salon des Indépendants. His early works showed a strong debt to Impressionism. He was a friend of Renoir as well as of Paul Signac, Henri Edmond Cross, Louis Valtat and later Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard.
After his return to France, from a visit to Morocco in 1898, he concentrated on studies from nature, paintings of women, children and flowers and decorative projects for private patrons. In 1904 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, becoming its Vice-President in 1935. In 1906 he illustrated Remy de Gourmont’s book Sixtine, published in Paris. In the early 1910s he painted a number of portraits including several musician friends, including Albert Roussel, by this time his work was more simplified, fluid and intimate. In 1914 he provided the decor for a production of Alfred de Musset’s play Fantasio at the Théâtre de Batignolles in Paris.
After working in a camouflage unit during World War I, d’Espagnat bought a country house in the Quercy region and over the next decade painted numerous landscapes and interiors there. During the 1930s he worked in various media. He illustrated Alphonse Daudet’s L’Immortel (Paris, 1930) and also produced theatre designs. Ironically, considering his earlier attitudes, from 1936 to 1940 he was a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Though disrupted by World War II, he continued to paint until his death and with his pupil Suzanne Humbert, illustrated Francis Jammes’s Clairières dans le ciel, 1902–1906.
American, 1923-1985
Provenance:
Private collection, France
Theodore Franklin Appleby, Jr., an Abstract Impressionist artist, was born January 28, 1923 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He attended the Pauling School in New York City, and studied at the atelier of John Corneal (1938-1939). On December 12, 1942, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and saw action in 1945 in the Marshall Islands, namely Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Engebi. Later he was stationed from 1945-1946 at Yokohama, where he studied Japanese engravings. He remained in the Pacific Theater until his discharge as a Sergeant in 1946.
During a stay in Mexico from 1947-1948, he studied monumental mural painting at St. Michele de Allende University. The following year he went to Paris. He regularly visited the atelier of Fernand Leger and was represented every year from 1950-1952 in the "Salon de Novelles Realitees". Appleby is one of numerous Americans who became part of the artistic Parisian scene.
From 1955 to 1961, Appleby was part of group exhibitions in Chicago, Leverkusen, Germany, Lisbon, Portugal, London, England, Paris, France, and others. He also organized three solo exhibitions during this period: in 1956 at the Studio Facchetti in Paris; 1957 at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York City; and in 1959 in Paris, a double exposition with Ralph Stackpole at the American Cultural Center. In 1957 his work was celebrated by the Chicago Art Institute.
Appleby later moved to the South of France settling in Alba Ardeche until his death in 1987.
