André Devambez - Vertigo of the imagination

Written in French.

Son of the founder of the Maison Devambez, an engraving and art book publishing company, André Devambez (1877-1944) followed the successful career of a Parisian artist at the end of the 19th century. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in Benjamin Constant's studio, he was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome for painting in 1890, became official painter to the Ministry of the Air Force in 1934 and head of the painting studio at the Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1929 and 1937.

Painter, draughtsman, engraver, but also illustrator for young people, André Devambez has treated with verve realistic or fanciful subjects from an always unexpected angle. A master of detail, caricatured expressions, improbable angles of view and cross-cutting subjects characterized by his taste for tiny formats...

At the turn of the Belle Époque, which saw the emergence of a flood of marginal creators in the capital, the work of André Devambez - an artist and witness committed to a modern society in movement (see his subjects on the aeroplane, the cinemograph, or the telephone) - delivers "an extremely lively and always unexpected spectacle, even though it is borrowed from the strictest reality. Devambez not only makes the fantastic out of the real, but he also makes the real out of the fantastic. (Arsène Alexandre). This richly illustrated book is the first complete work on the artist.

Exhibition "André Devambez Vertigo of the imagination" at the Petit Palais from September 9th 2022 to December 31st 2022.

Written in French.
368 pages / 350 illustrations

Éditions Paris Musées