Oil

Emile Marie Beaume oil painting that depicts a nude female bathing next to a bright blue body of water. The painting is signed by the artist at the bottom center of the composition.

French painter, lithographer and engraver, Emile-Marie Beaume was born in Pézenas in 1888. His father, Georges Beaume, was an author and an art critic. Emile-Marie Beaume studied at the Fine Arts School in Paris with the painters Fernand Cormon, François Flameng and Adolphe Déchenauld. A talented draughtsman, Beaume was assigned to the army mapping department in 1914, where he made plans and topographical surveys. In 1917, he was mobilized in Morocco by the French army. This trip profoundly influenced his work. He painted many street scenes, landscapes and portraits. Beaume was also inspired by historical stories and the tales from One Thousand and One Nights. In the scene from the "History of the Second Kalendar", the painter highlighted his taste for history scenes and his sense of detail. Beaume received the First Grand Prix de Rome in 1921 for an oil on canvas entitled "Ensevelissement de Saint Antoine". The artist later became a recognized master of wall decoration and fresco art, creating numerous monumental commissions for private mansions, casinos and public buildings. From 1927 to 1932, he was a drawing professor at the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins. Beaume continued his travels in North Africa and the French colonial empire. At the Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931, he decorated the Pavillon of Madagascar. In 1937, his panels representing scenes from North Africa were shown at the International Exhibition. He won the Prize of the French Equatorial Africa in 1937 and travelled in Ubangui-Shari, in Chad and in the Belgian Congo. After the second world war, the artist decorated the palaces of Moroccan and Ethiopian families. Some of his paintings are preserved in the museum of Pézenas, his hometown.

H 26 in. x W 16 in. x D 0.25 in.