Albert Decaris French | 1901 - 1988 Albert Decaris is a French painter, engraver, fresco artist, decorator and illustrator born on May 6, 1901 in Sotteville-les-Rouen. Very gifted for drawing from his youngest years, Decaris waited until he was old enough to join the Beaux-Arts by obtaining the diploma of the Ecole Estienne, specializing in engraving, under the aegis of the engraver Antoine Dezarrois. He entered the Beaux-Arts without difficulty as soon as he could pass the competitive examination and at 18 became Premier Grand Prix de Rome for engraving, with a work entitled Eve avant le pêché. The years he spent at the Villa Medici would mark his inspiration, Mediterranean subjects, Roman light, references to the Italian Renaissance being part of his work until his last paintings. His desire to integrate art into all aspects of human life would give his career a particular boost. Easel painting and large-scale burin engravings would always remain his preferred media, but he added a wide range of artistic activities to them. He devoted great attention to books, starting in 1928 with a Combourg by Chateaubriand and then continuing to illustrate works chosen to allow him to express excess and flamboyance (Les trophees de Heredia, l’Iliade, Les Tragédies d’Aeschylus, etc.). He was just as interested in city decor (a mural in New York) as in home decor (Jean Walter’s chalet in Megève) or official architecture (decor of the Hôtel de Ville in Vesoul). Everyday life also inspired him: Decaris was one of the most popular engravers in the postal services and would produce more than 500 stamps, including a Marianne. Official painter of the French Navy in the early sixties, he did not limit himself to painting his Normandy shores, but gave luminous representations of the seas of the Antilles or the Caribbean. He became president of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1960. Decaris died in Paris in 1988 Type:Oil Genre:Symbolism Characteristics:On canvas