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a painting on the wall of a building with a woman holding a gunpainting of a man sitting on a bench in front of a brick wall
DE BAECQUE et Associés - Lyon

275 - Marcel AVRIL (1887–1944)
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Estimate €300 - €500
Sale commission
Description
Marcel AVRIL (1887–1944) God Alone is One, circa 1940 Oil on cardboard, signed lower right H. 72.5 cm – W. 52.5 cm Provenance: former collection of the painter and architect Louis Thomas (1892–1989) in Lyon (label on the reverse) Armand Avril Collection (1925–2026), Cotignac (Var) Exhibitions: Lyon, Galerie Folklore (Marcel Michaud), exhibition by the Témoignage group, 1940 Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Témoignage Group (1936–1943), 1976, reproduced in the catalogue on page 17 Small stains and wear to the edges, which are irregularly cut The original frame bearing the title of the work is missing; it is visible in the reproduction in the catalogue of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon Marcel Avril (1887–1944) was the father of the artist Armand Avril (1926–2025). The collection of fifteen works we are presenting, from the family collection, offers a wonderful opportunity to rediscover a major figure in the visual arts in Lyon during the 1930s and 1940s and beyond, the ambitious and extremely rare works of an artist deeply committed to the cause at the heart of the turmoil of the Second World War. Marcel Avril, a collector of paintings and primitivist art from the 1920s and 1930s onwards, was a man of very strong political convictions in the spirit of the Popular Front, a defender of the workers’ cause and a peace activist. His paintings bear witness to his commitments and offer a deeply troubled vision of a world with apocalyptic overtones. The profound strangeness of his painting, which in our view is without equal, comes across in a striking blend of Expressionism and Surrealism, imbued with a highly personal, incantatory mysticism. In Lyon, he exhibited with the Témoignage group, under the auspices of Marcel Michaud, in 1940, 1941 and 1943. In January 1944, his political activism led to his arrest by the Gestapo, followed by his deportation to Germany, where he died in December of the same year. Since then, his work has been shown only once, at the exhibition ‘Groupe Témoignage 1936–1943’ at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, exactly 50 years ago, in 1976.
See original version (French)
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About the sale 20th–21st CENTURIES – DESIGN – MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
Auction location
Auction time 10/17/2026 at 2:30 PM
Lot description modified on 10/05/2026 at 2:39 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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