Oil on panel by Henri Montassier (1880-1946)

This reclining nude is one of Montassier's most sensual works. On a neutral background in an alcove, which contrasts with the impression of softness that emerges from the shape and position of the cushions, Montassier has placed a young nude woman, lying on a colorful sheet, her body on her right side, her head placed on her cushion. The young woman seems asleep and peaceful at the edge of the bed.

Montassier paints the nude indoors in the manner of Goya or Manet.

This 1910 painting has won many awards at exhibitions around the world. The painting has been exhibited in Paris, New York, and Tokyo.

Henri Montassier, son of Marthe Fauche and Albert Montassier, a notary in Courlon, was born on June 27, 1880.
Young Henri attended the municipal school in Pontoise and was then admitted to the lycée in Sens where he distinguished himself during his schooling by obtaining numerous drawing prizes. At 18, in 1898, he obtained his baccalaureate in literature and philosophy. Despite his growing sensitivity and artistic taste, his father enrolled him in the Faculty of Law in Paris. Albert still thought, at that time, that his son would succeed him at the head of the firm with a bachelor's and a doctorate in his pocket.

But in 1900, Henri, 20, discovered the pleasures of the capital and felt more attracted to museums than to the faculty of law. Armed with a letter of recommendation from Eugène Petit, mayor of Pont, he passed the entrance examination for the Banque de France in 1902 and associated himself with Luc Olivier Merson, a renowned artist who taught at the Beaux-Arts. Soon after, Henri was admitted to the master's studio. In 1906, he finally resigned from the bank. Without regret. Except to see his father's hopes disappear forever. He would not be a notary in Pont-sur-Yonne.

During the Great War, he supported the combatants with artistic contributions. In 1917, Henri Montassier met Céline Rambach. It was love at first sight. They married in Paris in February 1918. Céline's father believed greatly in his son-in-law's painting and helped the young couple settle comfortably. Which Céline and Henri did when they moved into the 17th arrondissement of Paris, into an apartment with a beautiful studio.

A renowned painter and illustrator, he participated in numerous exhibitions: Salon des Artistes Français (gold and silver medal), Salon d'Automne (vice-president), Salon des Indépendants… He exhibited in the provinces but also in London, Munich, Geneva, Brussels, the United States, and Japan. Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1932, he received the Heiner Prize in 1937, rewarding a French artist, a figure painter; a diploma of honor at the International Exhibition the same year. Between 1920 and 1940, Henri Montassier worked a lot. He painted large canvases, nudes, portraits, landscapes… His paintings were very often purchased by the State during various exhibitions. He worked for L'Illustration (1927, 1929, 1935 in particular) and illustrated literary works, including a very beautiful edition of Beaumarchais' "Mariage de Figaro" (1928). During this period between the two wars, Henri Montassier traveled a lot, in France, but also in Italy, Tunisia… He brought back from his travels many landscapes that can be found today through auctions.

Henri Montassier The Impressionist:

Impressionist painters, who want to paint from life, choose their subjects from landscapes or daily scenes of contemporary life freely interpreted and recreated according to the vision and personal sensibility of each of them. For the first time, they will not only take sketches of the landscape to then complete their work in their studio. Working on site and "en plein air," as often the painters of the Barbizon school, like certain English landscape painters, like Eugène Boudin or Johan Barthold Jongkind, they push very far the study of the open air, make light and its play the essential and moving element of their painting, spreading dark shades and elaborated nuances to use pure colors that shimmer a very divided touch. Painters of a changing nature, of a simple and tranquil life, seized in the particularity and truth of the moment, they are indifferent to the search, dear to the classics, of the ideal of beauty and the eternal essence of things. Among the main representatives of the Impressionist movement are Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley accompanied by other artists whose respective personalities will evolve in a clearly distinct way: Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, Albert Lebourg, Édouard Manet, Henri Montassier, Mary Cassatt, Gustave Caillebotte.

Dimensions: 56 CM X 48 CM (22.04'' X 18.89'')

In very good condition

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