NICOLAS DE STAËL 1914-1955

Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) was a Franco-Russian painter and a key figure in lyrical abstraction, whose works are available at HELENE BAILLY gallery. His unique style, balancing figuration and abstraction, is characterized by intense color fields, dense textures, and profound emotional depth.

Of Russian origin, he was placed in a foster family in Belgium in 1922 after the death of his parents. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels before embarking on a journey across Europe in the 1930s. In Paris and Nice, he met Alberto Magnelli, Jean Arp, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, who influenced his early abstract compositions, particularly in his "Compositions" series.

Deeply connected to color and texture, Nicolas de Staël was an artist who expressed his inner world through painting, as he himself stated:
"All my life, I have needed to think about painting, to see paintings, to create paintings to help me live, to free myself from my impressions, from all sensations, from all anxieties for which I have found no other outlet than painting."

During the Nazi Occupation, he met Georges Braque, and his first exhibition took place in 1944 alongside Kandinsky. His work quickly gained international recognition, particularly in the United States and England. His pictorial language evolved into a more luminous and dynamic abstraction, where bold color contrasts and expressive brushstrokes revealed an intense emotional tension.

In 1953, suffering from severe depression, he withdrew to the South of France, then to Antibes, where he continued to paint obsessively. Despite his international success, he took his own life on March 16, 1955, leaving behind a major body of work that continues to inspire contemporary artists.