558. MAURICE ESTÈVE. "Fruits et feuillages", oil on canvas, 39 x 60 cm.

MAURICE ESTÈVE France, 1904–2001 "Fruits et feuillages" Signed Estève. On verso signed, dated and titled Estève 1943 Fruits et feuillages. Oil on canvas, 39 x 60 cm.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Louis Carré, Paris Private collection OTHER: Catalog Raisonné page 221.

Maurice Estève is known for his lyrical color compositions consisting of interwoven blocks of color and shapes. The artist was born in 1904 in the French town of Culan. Together with his parents, he moved to Paris in 1913, where he soon entered the artistic career. During his visits to the Louvre in the 20th century, Estève was impressed by old masters such as Fouquet and Ucello, but Cezanne's art also made a great impression on him. Estève can more or less be considered a self-taught artist, as the only teaching he received during his development as an artist was for a brief period in the mid-20s at the Academie Colarossi.

During the latter part of the 20th century, Estève moved away from realism and he found inspiration from artists such as Léger, Matisse and Bonnard. His artistic work resulted in a first solo exhibition at the Galerie Yvangot in Paris in 1930.

During the 1940s, Estève's stylized figures, landscapes and still lifes became completely abstract and then turned into interwoven forms and patterns. In parallel with painting, Estève worked with lithographs, textiles and murals.

In the work "Fruits et Feuillages" from 1943, we see the ongoing change in Estève's work, the movement from a painting with a realistic background towards the completely abstract. The title gives us clues to the motif's origin, but the image's expression is abstract.