Nicolas de Staël was a French painter who came from Russia. He created his abstract artworks, including landscapes, collages, illustrations and textiles, using a thick impasto. He is considered as one of the great masters of the post war European art.
Background
Nicolas de Staël was born on January 5, 1914 in Petrograd, Russian Empire (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). His father, Baron Vladimir Ivanovitch Staël von Holstein, was Lieutenant General, and had occupied the post of the last Commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress from 1908 till 1917. Staël’s mother, Lubov Vladimirovna Berednikova, Vladimir Staël’s second wife, was younger her husband by twenty-two years. She came from the rich family interested in art.
In 1917, the family fled to Poland from the Russian Revolution. Two years later, Staëls’ parents died and in 1922, the boy was orphaned along with his sisters Marina and Olga by Emmanuel Fricero and Charlotte Fricero, the family Russian by the nationality.
Education
Nicolas de Staël studied at the Saint Michael College in Brussels, Belgium where he entered on April, 16, 1924 and finished it in 1931. In September of the same year, he was inscribed by the family to the Cardinal Mercier College in Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium.
While studying at the Cardinal Mercier, Nicolas was fascinated by the French literature and Greek tragedy. Although his stepfather wished him to become scientist, the boy revealed his interest in art and explored the artworks of such painters as Rubens, James Ensor and Constant Permeke.
After finishing his studies in engineering, Staël returned to the painting training and entered the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in October of 1933 where he studied antique drawing under the tutelage of Henri van Haelen. While in the institution, the artist also was introduced to the abstract art by his friend Madeleine Haupert.
Then, Staël enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Saint-Gilles, Belgium where he attended the architecture course by Charles Malcause and the decoration course along with Georges de Vlamynck.
After, Nicolas de Staël travelled to France, where he explored the art of Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Chaïm Soutine and Georges Braque, and to Spain where landscapes caught his interest.
Nicolas de Staël started his career from the first public demonstration of his drawings at the Galerie Dietrich et Cie in Brussels in 1936. After the trip to Morocco and the court stint in Paris, Nicolas came back to Belgium where he earned his living working on the murals for the French pavilion on the International Exposition of the water technics in 1939 in Liège.
When the Second World War began, the same year, Staël joined the ranks of the French Foreign Legion and had served there for three years. The beginning of the 1940s, the artist became involved in artistic circles where he got acquainted with Alberto Magnelli, Maria Elena Vieira da Silva, Jean Arp, Christine Boumeester, Sonia Delaunay and Robert Delaunay. One of the artists’ paintings of the period was the Broc Landscape (1941).
The birth of Staël’s daughter, Anna, gave the artist the new the portion of inspiration and he turned to portraying. His main model was his companion Jeannine.
Although the War, artist had some group exhibitions, including his debut solo show at the Galerie l'Esquisse on May, 12, 1944 where he sold several of his works. This one was followed by the next one-man show organized a year later on Avril at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher. In May of the same year, Staëls’ works became the subject of the first Salon de Mai in Paris and of the Salon d'Automne. So, by 1945, Nicolas de Staël received his late popularity.
The year of 1946 was marked by the start of the collaboration with Louis Carré Gallery. By the end of 1948, Staël changed the style of his creations from abstraction to involution. The paintings such as The Life Remains (1946), Dance (1916- 1947), and Ressentiment et Tierce noir are the examples.
In 1947, Staël moved with his family to Paris where he opened his studio.
The next ten years, the artist had a lot of exhibitions, including an exhibition at the United States, among which were solo show at the Galerie Jacques Dubourg in Paris (1950), group exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York City, one-man shows in London, Montevideo and in Paris (1952), and his first New York private show at the M. Knoedler & Co. The same year, Staël presented his works at the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC (now The Phillips Collection in Washington DC).
Then, the artist signed a contract with an art dealer Paul Rosenberg in New York City. The contract became fruitful for both parts – the artworks by Staël were on great demand, and Rosenberg raised his prices and continually commissioned additional paintings.
The last successful exhibition while alive took place in 1954 in Paris at Jacques Dubourg's Gallery.
Achievements
Nicolas de Staël was a prolific a talented painter considered as one of the great masters of the post war European art (1950s) with his brilliant abstractions and landscapes. Unfortunately, the main acclaim came to the artist after his death.
So, Staël’s style was adopted by such art movements as lyrical abstraction and informalism. The bright colors of his late creations predicted somehow Pop art movement of 1960s.
Compositions series of Nicolas de Staël were acquired by the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and his name was featured in the magazine Cahiers d'art.
The movie Pierrot Le Fou by the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was inspired on colors by Staël’s style.
Quotations:
"One does not start from nothing, and a painting is always bad if it has not been preceded by contact with nature."
"You never paint what you see or think you see. You paint with a thousand vibrations the blow that has struck you: how can you be struck and not cry out in anger?"
Interests
Artists
Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Chaim Soutine, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Hercules Seghers
Connections
Nicolas de Staël met his first life partner, Jeannine Guillou, in Marrakech, during his trip to Morocco in 1937. Elder than Staël by five years, Jeannine was a painter too. By the time, she was wife of Olek Teslar, and they had a son, Antek. Jeannine broke out with her husband after the meeting with Staël.
Staël and Guillou had a daughter, Anne, who was born on 22 February, 1942. After her birth, Nicolas de Staël wanted to marry his companion, but some juridical problems concerned the divorce of Jeannine with Olek Teslar disturbed the marriage.
Jeannine Guillou died on February, 27, 1946 after the siege of illness.
In May of the same year, Staël married Françoise Chapouton, who had looked after Anne and Antek since she was a nineteen-year-old girl. Françoise gave birth to three children, Laurence, born on April, 6, 1947, Jérôme who came a year later, and Gustave, born on April, 3, 1954.
Staël’s stepson, Antek, became a writer and scenarist under the pseudonym Antoine Tudal.
