Dimitri BOUCHENE (St.Tropez 1893 – Paris 1993)

Surroundings of Abano, the land Gouache on paper 26 x 36 cm Signed lower right "Bouchène Dimitri Bouchène is a Russian painter and decorator naturalized French. He was born in 1893 in Saint-Tropez while his mother was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Until 1912, Bouchène took evening classes in painting while studying at the Second Gymnasium of St. Petersburg. He arrived in Paris in 1912 and attended Maurice Denis' studio at the Ranson Academy where he met Henri Matisse. Back in St. Petersburg in 1913, Dimitri Bouchène studied history and philology before taking drawing classes two years later at the Imperial Society of Fine Arts. He was part of the Mir Iskousstva movement founded in 1898, which advocated a renewal of Russian art, and was inspired by Art Nouveau and Symbolism, relying on new art forms including theater and decoration. He was appointed curator of the department of precious objects of the Hermitage Museum until 1925. Returning to Paris in 1926, Bouchène created the costumes for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, then worked for the haute couture houses Lucien Lelong, Jean Patou, Lanvin and Nina Ricci. Until 1969, the artist decorated and made costumes for the Parisian and international scene. The painter died on February 6, 1993 and is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. PasswordDimitri Bouchène exhibited in Parisian galleries: Galerie Bernheim-Jeune (1927), S.Lesnik (1928), V.Girchman (1929,1930), Fabre (1928), Eugène Druet (1929,1933), Drouot (1929,1933,1936,1938), La Renaissance (1932), Proscenium (1971); and participated in several group exhibitions in Belgium, England, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Russia and the United States.