Anne Gacon –Camargue, Backlight – Circa 1970

French painter and short story writer, born in Ecrouves (Meurthe-et-Moselle) on September 15, 1913 and died on May 2, 1987. Student at the Beaux-Arts in Nancy under Victor Prouvé, she then entered the Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later studied at Yves Brayer’s workshop, also in Paris.

During the Second World War, she was a war correspondent, which earned her the Croix de Guerre with four citations including one from Marshal Leclerc and, in 1984, the Military Medal, exceptionally, from the hands of Gaston Defferre, then Minister of the Interior. Between 1954 and 1962, she exhibited regularly in Paris, where we find her works in 1968 (Arlette Chabaud gallery). In the 1970s, she exhibited at many art fairs and galleries, the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d'Automne, the Biennale de Menton, Galerie Jouvène in Marseille (where this painting comes from) as well as various museums and private collections in the United States, in Argentina, Morocco, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and of course, Syria and Lebanon.

His style is figurative with some accents of modernism. Her painted work is undoubtedly influenced by the vision of combat: the strange, the unusual, the anguish, reminiscent of Munch. Her time living in the Midi (southern France), with her studio in Marseille, brought calm and brightness to her works. In 1977, she won two prominent awards: The Grand Prix de Carry-le-Rouet and the Prix Pagnol. In 1981, the Académie de Marseille awarded her the Jean-Roque Prize. Marseille, where she ended her life, honoured her by naming a street after her in the 16th arrondissement.

Sources: Benezit Dictionary of Artists; Marseillaises – Vingt-six siècles d’histoire, Publ. Édisud, p. 114-115; Bourdet-Guillerault, H., Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs de Marseille et la région.

Artist: Anne Gacon (1913-1987).
Signed on bottom left and the title appears on the back.
Medium: Oil on wood board.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 12 x 21 ½ in. / 30 x 55 cm.
Frame: 16 x 26 in. / 41 x 66 cm. Gold-coloured wood, good condition.
Provenance: France.