Avant de paraître

Olivier Lorquin and Didier Jumaux have confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Camille Bombois worked from a young age in a variety of jobs, as a sailor and a wrestler on fairgrounds near Paris, painting in his spare time. The circus would later serve as the inspiration for many of his most important works. Meeting German critic Wilhelm Uhde, a champion of Naïve Art, in 1922 sparked fruitful support for Bombois that would see his representation in Paris exhibitions. The following four lots are from this time in the 1920s, when he was becoming known within Parisian avant-garde circles.

Bombois painted with careful sensitivity, attention and respect for each subject. They rosey-cheeked buxom females in Avant de paraître and Les belles contes bleux display strength, curvaceousness and seriousness far away from the elegance and chic of the Parisian upper class. The vividness of colour in their clothing, flesh and surroundings, and simplicity of form makes a direct and bold statement.

The artist’s particular attention to detail holds an intimate quality, a personal specificity that alternates between the intriguing, the humorous and the precious. Tiny caricatures can often be found in the peripheral minutiae of each composition; the tiny clothes on the washing line in Promenade en banlieue, the tiny potplant sitting on the doorstep in Les nouvelles du village, the paintings within a painting of Avant de paraître. These are quiet murmurs of the general milieu of each situation and narrative which brings a feeling of commentary, an added entertainment and characterful humour to each work.

“He paints true to life, what he sees, what he loves spontaneously in daily life” - Wilhelm Uhde