Description
Pierre Francis DAURA (1896-1976) Catalan Fisherman, 1927 Oil on canvas signed lower right, titled on back and numbered 3 81 x 62 cm Bibliography: Catalogue raisonné no. 6559, confirmed by a letter dated June 17, 2008 from Jacqueline HELION and certificate from Martha DAURA dated JUNE 10, 2008. Pierre Daura was a Spanish painter born in Menorca, Balearic Islands, on February 21, 1896, and died in 1976 in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia, USA. His father was a musician in Barcelona and a textile merchant; his mother died when he was seven. He studied at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona, where his teacher was Pablo Picasso's father, José Ruiz y Blasco. At 14, he exhibited and sold his first paintings. At 18, in 1914, he left for Paris, where he stayed until 1917, in the middle of the war. He worked in the studio of the painter Emile Bernard, and learned engraving from André Lambert, publisher and illustrator of the luxury magazine Janus devoted to Latin lyric poets. Returning to Barcelona, he joined the Groupe des Artistes Catalans, with whom he exhibited throughout Europe from 1918 to 1933. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1922 and 1926. He settles in the Lot region of France. In 1928, along with four other artists rejected by the Salon, he takes part in the "Cinq Peintres Refusés par le Jury du Salon" exhibition at Gallery Marck. In 1928, he married Louise Heron Blair, an art student from Richmond, Virginia, whose sister would later marry the painter Jean Hélion. In 1930, their daughter Martha was born. In 1939, the Dauras were in Virginia when the Second World War broke out. With his daughter Martha, he himself became a naturalized American citizen in 1943. During the war, Cy Twombly, who had already marveled at the Mediterranean warmth of the Master's soul and art at the age of 14, became his friendly student. The Musée de Hyacinthe Rigaud in Perpignan owns a number of works by the artist.
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