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painting of a man standing in front of a group of peoplean old piece of paper with torn edges on a gray surface
DE BAECQUE et Associés - Lyon

276 - Marcel AVRIL (1887–1944)
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Estimate €200 - €300
Sale commission
Description
Marcel AVRIL (1887–1944) Men are such a funny lot (Why is one man taller than another… a white man taller than a black man…) Pastel and graphite, inscribed in the lower margin H. 48.5 cm – W. 63.5 cm Provenance: Armand Avril Collection (1925–2026), Cotignac (Var) Exhibition: Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Groupe Témoignage (1936–1943), 1976, reproduced in the catalogue on page 18 Creases and small tears in the upper part Marcel Avril (1887–1944) was the father of the artist Armand Avril (1926–2025). The collection of fifteen works we are presenting, drawn from the family archive, 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 to our eyes is without equal, is evident 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.
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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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