Maurice Rocher (1918-1995) - Le Matador

The Matador - Maurice Rocher (1918-1995)
Gouache on paper before 1960 - Signed bottom left, framed
Frame dimension: 64x75 cm
Gouache dimension within the matting: 60x50 cm
Provenance: Camdessus private collection - acquired from the artist.
The frame shows some signs of wear.
Shipped framed, with tracking and insurance.

Maurice Rocher, born August 1, 1918 in Évron and died July 12, 1995 in Versailles, is a French painter whose work is imbued with Expressionism and spirituality. Trained at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and at the Sacred Art Studios under the guidance of Maurice Denis and Georges Desvallières, he explores intense and often mystical themes such as crucifixions, the tormented, faces-as-substance, women and couples. His art, influenced by Constant Permeke, is characterized by dark tonalities, his brown period, between 1936 and 1965, and compositions filled with a powerful pictorial matter and more color in the period 1966-1995.
Maurice Rocher remains an unclassifiable artist, an “anarcho-mystic” to borrow the words of one of his biographers. Marked first by faith, then by doubt and finally by the quest for meaning, his work remains an interrogation into eternal values between the sacred and the profane. The Black-and-White Gouaches: they reprise the themes of the painter’s emblematic series.

Salons
Paris, Salon des moins de trente ans, 1941.
Paris, Salon d’art sacré: 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949.
Paris, Charpentier Gallery, One Hundred Masterpieces of Sacred Art, 1952.
Paris, Galliera Museum, Celebrities and Revelations of Contemporary Painting, 1953.
Paris, Biennale of Young Artists, 1957.
World Exhibition of Brussels, 1958.
Autumn Salon: 1960 to 1970.
Tokyo, International Exhibition of Figurative Art, 1964.
Tehran, First International Exhibition of Tehran Arts, Centre of International Exhibitions, December 1974 - January 1975.
Paris, Grand and Young Artists of Today Salon, 1976 to 1981.
Paris, Salon des Realités Nouvelles, 1968 to 1985.

Notable Exhibitions
The Association of Painting Enthusiasts presents Bernard Buffet, André Minaux, Roger Montané, Maurice Rocher, Gaëtan de Rosnay, Robert Savary, Maurice Verdier, Paul Aïzpiri…, Galerie Jacques Leuvraix, 182 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, January 1949.
Galerie Drouant, Paris, 1964
Galerie Jacques Massol, Paris, 1968, 1970, 1972.
Galerie Veranneman, Brussels, 1970.
Musée de Saint-Omer, 1974.
Galeria Altex, Madrid, 1977.
Galerie Ariel, Paris, 1976, 1979.
Musée du Vieux Château, Laval, 1981.
Galerie Protée, Paris, 1983, 1984, 1988.
Galerie Convergence, Nantes, 1982, 1986.
Twenty Modern and Contemporary Masters, Galerie Serge Garnier, Paris, 1983.
Figurations from the 60s to the present - Valerio Adami, Lydie Arickx, Eduardo Arroyo, Philippe Bonnet, John Christoforou, Robert Combas, Pierre Dessons, Roger-Edgar Gillet, Peter Klasen, Claude Morini, Jean Revol, Maurice Rocher, Jean Rustin, Gérard Schlosser, Hervé Télémaque, Vladimir Veličković…, travelling exhibition 1986-1987
Galerie Olivier Nouvellet, Paris 1993, 1998, 2002, 2006.
Galerie Pierre Marie Vitoux, Paris, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2007, May-June 2014, March-April 2017.
Collection Jean Pollak - Fifty Years of Painting in France, Musée départemental Zadkine, Les Arques, 2005
Galerie Zafman, Paris 2008.
Versailles in the 20th Century, Museum of Artists, Musée Lambinet, Versailles, September-November 2020
Cabane Georgina, Marseille 2023.
Galerie Ories, Paris, October 2024

Works in Museums
IN FRANCE:
Versailles, Musée Lambinet; Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix; Paris, Centre National des Arts Plastiques CNAP, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain FNAC; Cannes, Musée de la Castre; Laval, Musée de Laval; Saint-Omer, Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin; Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Troyes, Musée d'Art Moderne; Pontoise, Musée Tavet-Delacour; Brest, Artothèque of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest
ABROAD:
Brussels, Belgium; Kruishoutem, Belgium, Veranneman Foundation; Wiesbaden, Germany, Hessian Ministry of Science and Arts; Rome, Italy, Vatican City, Contemporary Sacred Art Museum; Chihuahua, Mexico, Museo de Cuauhtémoc; Taichung, Taiwan, Taichung Contemporary Art Museum