Lucien Levy-Dhurmer (French, 1865 to 1953)
Lucien Levy-Dhurmer was a painter and potter. From 1879 he studied at the Ecole Superieure de Dessin et de Sculpture in Paris. In his first exhibition at the Salon in 1882 he showed a small porcelain plaque depicting the Birth of Venus in the style of Alexandre Cabanel, and he continued to exhibit there regularly. From 1886 to 1895 he worked as a decorator of earthenware and then as artistic director of the studio of Clement Massier (circa 1845-1917) at Golfe Juan, near Cannes. Around 1892 he signed his first pieces of earthenware inspired by Islamic ceramics and made a name for himself primarily as a potter at the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1895. An innovator in ceramic shapes, techniques and glazes, he participated in the revival of the decorative arts at the end of the 19th century. During this period he spent some time in Italy, notably in Venice where he familiarized himself with 15th-century Italian art.
In 1896 he exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Georges Petit, about twenty pastels and paintings were displayed, revealing his individual style and gifts as a portrait painter. The female form, influenced by the art of Leonardo and the Pre-Raphaelites became, with landscape, one of his favored themes and was invested with mystery, using a technique at once full-bodied and refined (e.g. Eve, 1896; Paris, Mus. d’Orsay).
In the 20th century he gradually departed from Symbolism except in some representations of women illustrating the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Gabriel Faure and Claude Debussy and in some landscapes (e.g. Winter, Petit Trianon, 1929; Paris, Petit Pal.).
Information courtesy of Charlton Hall Galleries, September 2006.