André Bouquet (1897-1987) - Barques de pécheurs

Very beautiful naïve art work, exhibited at the Galerie de l'Institut in Paris from September 14 to September 28, 1962 (the exhibition pamphlet with critique by Anatole JAKOVSKY is included).
Provenance: private collection.
Dimensions with frame: 30 x 45 cm.

André Bouquet is a painter born in La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, at the end of the 19th century, on September 19, 1897. His renown extends far beyond Villeneuve Saint-Georges, a small town in the Parisian suburbs, in the Val-de-Marne, where he lived in a small apartment since 1933 and where he ended his life in 1987. This town, where he spent the greatest part of his life, dedicated to him a cultural place on Avenue Carnot: “the André Bouquet space.”
At the beginning of his career, the painters HEUZE and GOERG, members of the Institut, worked Bouquet, and the painter Georges FOUCAULT gave him his advice. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in France and around the world.

André Bouquet’s naïve painting was internationally revealed by German television, which produced a report on this painter totally unknown in his country at the time.
André Bouquet exhibited for the first time in 1943 on Rue de Paris in Villeneuve Saint-Georges in a café today disappeared, “Chez Vivien.” He had to wait eight years to finally have his first solo show at the Galerie de l’Institut, rue de Seine in Paris. From then on, he exhibited at Galerie Berri and at Galerie 93 on Faubourg Saint-Honoré. UNESCO & UNICEF commissioned him for their greeting cards. Many books are devoted to the painting of this Artist, including, among others:
Frenh Provinces through the eyes of Modern Primitives; ISBN 2-903118-16-7
Proverbes vues par les Naïf; Ed. Max Fourny
La Fête et les Naïf; id.
Album Mondial de la peinture Naïve; Ed. Hervas

The Museums that have acquired some of his works are too numerous to count, in France as well as abroad. In France you can see André Bouquet’s works at the International Museum of Naïve Art in Vicq near Versailles, at the Laval Museum, or at the International Museum of Naïve Art Anatole-Jakovsky in Nice, the same JAKOVSKI who discovered him in 1950. Also notable is the Louvain-la-Neuve museum in Belgium. André Bouquet also exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris and at the Salon des Indépendants, where he was one of the invited guests of honor.

The work of this peaceful father of painting was compared by eminent critics such as Robert Vrinat to Rousseau the Outsider and to Jean Eve. André Bouquet possessed an undeniable superiority over many naïve painters; he knew how to draw admirably, which gives his work an incomparable graphic quality.
The shy and discreet painter thus became a great man through his talent and work, with the absolute piety of faithfully representing what he sees with his eyes or in his dreams. Apart from his technique gained through diligent work, André Bouquet is a true poet. He translates everyday scenes with such sensitivity that this scene becomes a dream and enchants you. The work of André Bouquet speaks to you.