Roger Chapelain-Midy (1904-1992) The Model's Rest

Roger Chapelain-Midy (1904-1992) The Model's Rest, oil on canvas signed and dated 1930 65x92cm Roger Chapelain-Midy studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then continued his artistic training in the painting academies of the Montparnasse district. Later, he became a professor and head of a workshop from 1955 to 1974. He exhibited in 1927 at the Salon d'Automne and from 1929 at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des Tuileries. Armand Drouant organized his first exhibition in 1930 in his gallery on rue de Rennes in Paris. Passionate about the Renaissance, the painting of Poussin and that of the 17th century, he defended a classical tradition, made of measure, in an era which saw the great upheavals of modern painting. He received the Carnegie Prize in 1938. .A theatre set designer and costume designer, from 19426, he notably worked on Rameau's Les Indes galantes in 1952, and on Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Paris Opera in 1954. The success of his work allowed him to work at the Cologne Opera. He received the Grand Prix du Théâtre at the Sao Paulo International Biennial in 1962. He also illustrated texts by Jean Giraudoux, André Gide, Charles Baudelaire, Fontenelle, Jean de La Fontaine, Charles Vildrac, Georges. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, then President of the French Republic, commissioned him to paint a Portrait of General de Gaulle for the Élysée Palace in Paris. In a late line of symbolism and surrealism, a whole part of his work bears the imprint of his spiritual preoccupations, materialized by the obsessive recurrence of unusual settings and objects such as checkerboard tiles, masks, mannequins and mirrors. In 1984 he published a collection of memories and reflections on art, Like Sand Between the Fingers. Public collections National Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Museums of Albi, Angers, Bordeaux, Cambrai, Dijon, Dreux, Épinal, Fontainebleau, La Rochelle, La Tronche, Le Mans, Lyon, Menton, Remiremont, Rouen, Saintes, Saint-Étienne.