Raymond Peynet - part 2

Raymond Peynet was born in Paris in 1908. At age fifteen he gained entrance to the famous “Ecole des Arts Appliqués,” a school which happened to be located just opposite the bistro owned by his parents who had moved from the Auvergne to Paris some years before.

He really started learning his trade when he began work as a draughtsman for Tolmer, an advertising agency in Paris, doing various tasks from sweeping the floor to drawing labels for perfume bottles and decorating biscuit boxes, eventually progressing to the creation of various advertisements. In 1930 he married Denise Damour.

In order to make a better living, he started publishing his drawings in the Parisian press which included many popular editions at that time: Le Rire, Rire à deux, Paris magazine, The Boulevardier (a publication for the British population in Paris). But it was in 1942 that his life would take a new turn.

Having been asked to deliver a confidential document to a correspondent located in Valence in the department of the Drôme, he was sitting on a bench where the appointment with the correspondent had been arranged. This bench was right opposite the music kiosk (classified historical monument since 1982). He drew a young, long-haired violinist playing alone in the kiosk and a young girl listening to him with great admiration.
A number of years later the violinist was replaced by a poet and the girl became his lover.

Les Amoureux de Peynet were born. Their images travelled across the world and were reproduced on porcelain, scarves and dolls, in books, as medallions and even statues (such as the one erected in Hiroshima, Japan). The image of the Peynet lovers has been stamped on anything symbolising love! Georges Brassens would not have written “Les bancs publics” (Public benches) without my lovers, said Peynet.
Charles Aznavour also dedicated a song to them interpreted by Marcel Amont: “les amants en papier” (Paper lovers).

Biographical notes by Annie Peynet, his granddaughter.

Four museums are presently dedicated to Peynet: Antibes, Brassac les Mines, Karuizawa (Nagano, Japan) and Mimasaka (Okayama, Japan). Raymond Peynet died on 14 January 1999 at the age of 90.

This is part 2 of a 3-part series on the works of Raymond Peynet

For earlier works see part 1 also.

1962 The Lovers
published by Penguin Books, London

1964 L'Amour
published by Penguin Books, London

1964 The Lover's Bedside Book
published by Grosset & Dunlap

1964 The Lover's Keepsake 
published by Grosset & Dunlap

1964 The Lover's Week-End Book
published by Grosset & Dunlap

1969 Pour Perrier Jouet
advertisement

We will live on love and Perrier-Jouët
advertisement

1979 Astrological Signs:

Aries
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Taurus
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Gemini
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Cancer
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Leo
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Virgo
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Libra
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Scorpio
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Sagittarius
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Capricorn
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Aquarius
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

Pisces
etching on Arches vellum rag-paper 75.5 x 56 cm

1979 The Twins
etching and aquatint on Rives vellum paper 76 x x56.5 cm

1979 Open-Heart Surgery

1980 Galerie de La Colombe, Cannes
exhibition poster

1980 Our hearts are made for each other
colour lithograph 75 x 56 cm

1982 In love, engaged, married
German edition with illustrations from the 1950s and 60s

1985 Grand Hotel Sky and the Little Dipper
 "Is it for a moment or for eternity?"
poster 76.5 x 55 cm

1985 I'll give you my flu ... you, your bronchitis
colour lithograph 57.1 x 43.2 cm

1985 Les Primevères (Primroses)
colour lithograph 57 x 42 cm

1985 Lovers on the boat in summer

1985 Teatime
colour lithograph 55 x 40 cm

1985 Window in the Sky
poster

1990 Pick happiness on the Riviera
poster 98 x 67.5 cm

1990 She loves me, a little, a lot, passionately
colour lithograph 69.8 x 49.5 cm

1990 The Wall of Lovers
fresco on a house in Le Cannet in the south of France

Note: Dates were not found for the remainder of works in this series on Raymond Peynet:

Already midnight ... How time flies with you!

Love and Politics

And now let me offer them to you...

And now, while we wait for the next ones...

"And then I joined the Air Force…"

-... And we will have a lot of children...

Autumn

C'est bien parce que vous m'insprirez confiance car je ne suis pas preteuse

Like Nicholas! I deliver at home....

It's wonderful… you the poets...
colour lithograph 75 x 55 cm

In the garden
 colour lithograph 54 x 75.5 cm

In the garden
 colour lithograph

Don't move, the little bird will come out!...

Every two minutes the driving teacher kisses his student...

Window in the sky
colour lithograph 70 x 50 cm

I hold you, you keep me there by the daisy,
the first of us who laughs will make the dinner!

I hold you, you hold me by the daisy, the first of us who laughs will be the (dinette?)

I have good news for you. The chef is charmingly toned...

I don't know how to thank you ... my hands were frozen!

I close my eyes to the "little mistakes" that I noted in your statement....

I am burning with love for you ... So come to my place, I have no heating....

Darling, did I keep you waiting?

Look! A carrier pigeon ...

Grass! Can we still find some?

For his comeback, he has a golden audience ...

For a rhyme, my poet gives me a kiss....