Pierre COMBET-DESCOMBES (1885 - 1966) - Laying nude

Pierre COMBET-DESCOMBES (Lyon, 1855 - id., 1966) - Laying nude

Pierre Combet-Descombes studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon from 1902 in the architecture section, then in decorative art. He graduated from the school in 1905. Bonnardel, his teacher, lets him express himself freely in all areas : male models, urban landscapes, flowers, decorations...

He exhibited in Lyon from 1906. In 1909, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for the decorative landscape competition and won the Ponthus-Cinier prize.
In 1925, examples of his work were presented in a group exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He set up decorative compositions for the town hall of the 7th arrondissement of Paris.

In his youth, he was greatly influenced by the Symbolist poets. Nevertheless, one can detect in his first bluish forests an inspiration close to that of Auguste Morisot, whose favourite disciple he was at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

In Lyon, he painted monuments and sites, which are identifiable in his paintings, but the city also fell prey to his lyrical staging. It was, in a way, by predestination that Combet-Descombes became a decorator: decorator of the walls of a few public buildings, but also a theatre decorator.

With a Baudelairean sensibility, Combet-Descombes celebrated the female body throughout her life. With a muscular stroke of a single movement, a way of inscribing the model's body in space, he makes this body, most often contemplated at altitude, from the top of a stepladder, a plastic sign of rare sensuality.