CATALOGUE ROGER GODCHAUX

Henri DELUERMOZ

(1876 - 1943)


Henri DELUERMOZ

(1876 - 1943)


Henri Deluermoz began painting during the traineeship in the ateliers of two masters who marked the century with their two completely different views on the world, Gustave Moreau, symbolist, and Alexandre Roll who depicted social realism during important constructions in Paris. Deluermoz, initiatied etchings and etched also others’ works in order to gain money to live while working on other subjects of his own inspiration. Due to the big war, he interrupted his work and research on animals for four years. However, meanwhile, he completed many works dedicated to massacres and to victories. When the war ended, Deluermoz resumed going to the Jardin des Plantes and to the zoo of Vincennes in order to study morphology and the character of the fauves, who were his greatest source of inspiration. His watercolours, drawings and oils of the first period are characterized by the quality of the applied design that Deluermoz had learned from his masters. It’s during the middle of his life that he affirms his own style. His drawings are defined by a large and encompassing line, and he paid close attention to the movement of the animal. Thanks to his connections at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, he became a member of the administration council and many French and foreign collectioners bought his works of art. Thereafter, Deluermoz began his career as illustrator. Such as Jouve, his attention was caught by the Jungle Book of R. Kipling and he worked on the illustration of the adventures of Mowgli and Kipling’s tales. He illustrated Histoire de Bêtes by L. Pergaud and Les Bestiaires by H. de Montherlant. It was for sure in the illustration of this last work that his talent as cartoonist was evident. Deluermoz was interested in America, rather than African forests. However, artists of the early XX century were constantly looking for elements belonging to the tribal expression which led artists such as Picasso or Braque to cubism. Deluermoz who, at the beginning of his career, used a palette with strong and sour colors rather inclined towards nature colours, in order to transcribe the essence of nature. In some paintings Deluermoz depicted only a detail, such as paws or ears, which become a graphic design in itself.