Paris Museum Tours

This autumn’s first exhibition at the Petit Palais, Paris is a wonderful opportunity to discover the work of André Devambez (1867-1944) who was one of the greatest illustrators and also painters of Paris and urban types of the early 20th century, though today largely forgotten by official art history. He was the son of Edouard Devambez, founder of a great print and publishing house in Paris, so fell easily into drawing and illustration as a child. He went on to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts win the prestigious Prix de Rome.

In painting he is best known for his plunging views of the city and his fascination with automobiles, airplanes, double-decker busses and other modern inventions of the early 20th century. He is both a great master of realism as witnessed by his superb portraits, but also of the imagination in the science fiction creatures of his illustrations, which are reminiscent of those in contemporary H. G. Wells novels. A most unusual and quirky modernist, well worth re-discovering.