Pinchus KREMEGNE (1890-1981)

Still life with figs Oil on canvas signed lower left. Size: 33 x 41 cm Provenance : Private collection, Monte-Carlo French painter and lithographer of Jewish faith born in Zaloudock in the Russian Empire, he is attached to the First School of Paris. While studying sculpture at the Vilnius Academy, he met Chaïm Soutine and Michel KIkoine and the trio eventually settled in the workshops of La Ruche in Paris where many artists from all walks of life were creating a completely new art. Krémègne befriended Chagall, Léger, Lipchitz, Zadkine and Modigliani, whose portrait is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern. Although he was still working on sculpture in 1912, he became increasingly interested in painting, especially Rayonism, a synthesis of Cubism, Futurism and Orphism, as well as Fauvism a little later. The 20's will be crowned with success for the artist with notably stays in Céret, the meeting with the Pré-Saint-Gervais group and especially the contract signed with Paul Guillaume which will give him a financial ease.