Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Framed Drawing Made Crossing Sarhara, France, c. 1922

Painter, engraver, illustrator and decorator born in Paris in 1881, Bernard Boutet de Monvel died prematurely in an air crash in the Azores in 1949. Introduced to drawing by his father, the illustrator Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, the young man was destined for an artistic career from an early age. From 1897, he took classes with the painter Luc-Olivier Merson and the sculptor Jean Dampt and presented his first paintings at the Salon in 1903. He also produced numerous illustrations which appeared in various fashion magazines. Mobilized as a reservist when the First World War broke out, he took part in the Salonika expedition as an aviator. Falling under the spell of Morocco, he stayed there until 1925 and delivered a singular and powerful vision through landscapes and animated scenes far from the clichés of Orientalist paintings.