Tuesday, 19 May 2026

André Masson - part 11

André Masson (1896-1987) french painter, sculptor, illustrator, designer and writer, was born at Balagny (Oise). He spent most of his youth in Brussels, where he worked as a pattern-drawer in an embroidery studio and studied part-time at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Then moved to Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1912-14. He served in the French Army 1914-19, and was gravely wounded. He lived in the South of France (1919-22), then returned to Paris where he met Gris, Derain, and later Miró and Breton. His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Simon, Paris in 1923. Paintings of forests, card players and still lifes, followed by experiments with automatic drawing. From 1924-9 he participated in the Surrealist movement. He made further works exploring chance effects, including sand paintings, as well as paintings of metamorphoses of animal and human forms, themes of germination, combats and massacres, with emphasis on violence and eroticism. He lived in Spain 1934-36 where he made paintings of bullfights, Spanish myths, etc. He took refuge in the USA between 1941-45, where he lived at New Preston, Connecticut, and made works inspired by the elemental forces of nature. He returned to France in 1945 and settled in Aix-en-Provence in 1947. Here he painted landscape themes such as mountains and waterfalls for several years, followed by some almost completely abstract pieces. His works also include sets and costumes for the theatre, book illustrations and a number of small sculptures.

This is part 11 of 15-part series on the works of André Masson:

1972 The Messengers of Hybris
pastel on coloured paper laid down on canvas 90 x 71 cm

1972 The Departure
two-colour lithograph on paper 32.3 x 24.7 cm

1972 Sonnets
colour lithograph on paper 65 x 50 cm

1972 Orpheus
colour lithograph on paper 65 x 50 cm

1972 Orpheus
colour lithograph on paper 62 x 48 cm

1972 Offering
oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm

1972 Nymphs of Fontainebleau
aquatint on paper 28.5 x 23.5 cm

1972 Lilith
lithograph on paper  27 x 20.5 cm

1972 Untitled (Torso)
colour lithograph on paper 31 x 24 cm

1972 Titan Toad
colour lithograph on paper 37 x 29 cm

1972 The Woman with the Fish
etching on paper 31.7 x 27.9 cm

1972 The Sonnets of Louis Labbe 
colour lithographs on Arches paper 65 x 50 cm each:














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1973 Untitled from Homage to Picasso series
aquatint 75 x 57.2 cm (sheet)

1973 The New Daphne, sequel to Entrevisions
oil on canvas 73 x 99.8 cm

1973 Men and Women
drypoint etching on paper 27.9 x 38.1 cm

1973 Garland for Ophelia
etching and aquatint on paper 47.3 x 36.4 cm

1973-79 Pyramus and Thisbe
aquatint on paper 50 x 65 cm

1973-79 Daphnis and Chloe
colour aquatint on paper 50 x 65 cm

1974 Judith
lithograph on Arches paper 53 x 75 cm

1974 Demiurge
ink and ink wash drawing on paper 56 x 41.5 cm

1974 Untitled from "Bonjour Max Ernst"
published by Les Éditions Georges Visat
colour etching and aquatint on wove paper

1974 The Seventh Canto 1
etching on paper 37.4 x 27.9 cm (sheet)

1974 The Seventh Canto 3
etching on paper 37.4 x 27.9 cm (sheet)

1974 The Pilgrim and the Lovers
oil on canvas 60.3 x 81 cm

1974 Poems by Lawrence Saphire, Editions de la Lune Bleue
Untitled etching on Japan Rice paper

1974 Poems by Lawrence Saphire, Editions de la Lune Bleue
Untitled etching on Japan Rice paper

1975 I Dream
colour lithograph 52 x 76 cm

1975 Dance of the Sunflowers
colour lithograph on wove paper  76 x 53 cm

1975 Characters in a Garden
ink and watercolour on paper 50 x 65.2 cm

1975 Apuleius' Golden Ass V
colour lithograph on paper 54 x 76 cm

1975 Homage to Michelangelo: Sun Figures
colour lithograph on paper 38.1 x 26.6 cm

1975 Méta.Morphoses
(Portfolio of 4 colour etching and aquatints on Arches paper)
38.1 x 28.6 cm

1975 1975 Méta.Morphoses
(Portfolio of 4 colour etching and aquatints on Arches paper)
38.1 x 28.6 cm

1975 Leda and the Swan
colour lithograph on paper 66 x 48 cm

1975 Je Reve (I Dream) portfolio of lithographs:

The Venetian
colour lithograph on paper 65 x 24.1 cm 

The Prince Iris
colour lithograph on Arches paper 50.8 x 66 cm

Bacchanale
colour lithograph on Arches paper 66 x 50.8 cm


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