Nicholas de Staël
Born – St Petersburg, Russia 1914
Died – Antibes, France 1955
Nicholas de Staël studied in Brussels, from where he travelled to Italy, Holland, Spain and North Africa. He went to Paris in 1932 from where he joined the Foreign Legion at the outbreak of war. Resettled in Paris in 1943, de Staël renewed contact with Braque and studied under Léger. By the end of the decade, he had established himself as a leading abstract painter. Although his works were considered non-representational they had a tangible sense of form, indicative of their closeness to the natural world. Through the introduction of simplified images from nature – such as the sun and sea – he attained a near-perfect balance between abstraction and figuration. De Staël’s dense and richly worked surfaces were built up through layers of paint: sensuous, impasto canvases revealed his enjoyment of the act of painting itself. Rectangles, Jaunes et Verts is constructed with simple blocks of colour on a monochrome ground. Unexpectedly, spatial qualities and an atmospheric depth emerge through the abstract ensemble. De Staël’s later paintings returned to a more recognizable form of presentation. He committed suicide at the age of 41.
Masterpieces:
- The Roofs
- Marathon
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.