IZAAC PAILES (1895-1978)

Young nude woman sitting Oil on canvas signed lower left. Size: 105 x 75 cm Provenance : Private collection Monte-Carlo. French artist born Jecussiel Itzek Païles in Kiev in the Russian Empire, having grown up in a Jewish family of goldsmiths, he is a painter belonging to the First School of Paris. He began his career as a sculptor with works that are now in the Kiev Museum. In 1913 he moved to Paris where he shared a room with Mané-Katz. A friend of Kikoine and Dobrinsky, it was in 1920 that he abandoned sculpture for painting and came into contact with the art lovers of the time: the curator Zamaron, the dealers Paquereau and Georges Bernheim. Attached to his Slavic origins, Païles took part in the activities of the Society of Russian Artists chaired by Wildhopff and animated by the Russian artists of Montparnasse. When the Second World War broke out. Païles moved to the Pyrénées Orientales and then to Auvergne. He then joined a resistance group in Rochefort. Called up for compulsory labour in Germany, he decided to hide in an attic where he remained for eleven months. After the Liberation, he returned to his studio in Montparnasse and continued to paint. It was in 1948 that Isaac Païles produced his first abstract works.