Odette CAMP (1909-1979) - Lot 39

Odette CAMP (1909-1979) Erbalunga (Corsica) Ink, watercolor and gouache on paper Signed "Odette Camp" lower right, titled lower left 30 x 44 cm Framed PROVENANCE Collection of Monsieur Michel Crochot, French stage director NOTICE Originally from Marseille, she moved to Paris in 1912 with her parents, where she studied at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, as well as at the studio of painter Jean Despujols. She began her career under the pseudonym "Otomasi": her colorful, figurative oil paintings were inspired by southern subjects, notably Provence and Corsica. She exhibited regularly at the "Salon d'Automne", the "Société des Amis du Louvre", the "Indépendants" and the "Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts", and several of her paintings were acquired by the State, the City of Marseille and even by celebrities such as Jean Gabin. Before the Second World War, she was one of the exhibitors at La Galerie Carmine, rue de Seine in Paris, in the company of famous Ecole de Paris painters: Yves Brayer, Georges Douking, Othon Friesz, Serge Poliakoff. Her first solo exhibition took place in Marseille in February 1942 at Galerie Saint Fé. In 1947, she decided to take back her name, Odette Camp. This greater self-assertion corresponded to a change of style, freer and less academic, as well as changes in subject and mood: Paris, Brittany, "grisailles" and "marines" inspired her, and her paintings are reminiscent of Albert Marquet. During this period, which lasted until 1955, in addition to decorating sets for her husband's opera "L'Atlantide" (in Vichy, then Lyon), she held several solo exhibitions in Paris to rave reviews: Galerie Barbedienne, avenue F. Roosevelt (1949), Galerie Serret, rue du Faubourg St-Honoré (1952), Galerie Cazelles (1954), also rue du Faubourg St-Honoré. From 1958, she tried her hand at drawing, and in 1960 exhibited at Galerie Motte, rue Bonaparte, then in Geneva in 1966, consecrating her new talent. A master in the use of Indian ink, she depicts old Paris, Venice and Ibiza, which she colors with highlights of gouache. She continued to take part in numerous salons, and several of her works were once again acquired by the State and the City of Paris. Her last two solo exhibitions were at Café Procope (1975), and at Cimaises Ventadour. It was in Paris that two major tributes were paid to him, one in 1981, presenting the whole of his graphic work at the Galerie Hérouet, rue des Francs-Bourgeois, and the second in 1983 at the Musée Carnavalet, "Paris disparu", on the occasion of a donation of 40 drawings. A text by the museum's Chief Curator, Bernard de Montgolfier, an article by Olivier Schmitt in "Le Monde" (24-07-1983), and another by Edmée Santy in "Le Provençal" (24-08-1983) confirmed that Odette Camp was an authentic artist in her own right. Away from fashion, her timeless art of drawing made her a singular and endearing figure of the Ecole de Paris, she who was so attached to the capital.