HAMBOURG ANDRÉ (1909-1999)

Few artists attain the international acclaim in their lifetimes that has been accorded to André Hambourg, the distinguished laureate of French 20th Century art. His paintings hang in more than fifty museums in France and other countries, and private collectors worldwide have acquired his luminous marines and beach scenes, his poetic compositions of Venice, his landscapes and still lifes - works that brilliantly transcend the art of Impressionism.

Hambourg was born in Paris in 1909. His artistic career began at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied sculpture in the studio of Paul Niclausse. In 1927 he enrolled in l’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts as a student of painting with Lucien Simon. The dealer for Zborowski, Modigliani, and Soutine introduced him to Henri Bénézit, who presented Hambourg’s first important solo exhibition in Paris in 1928. Hambourg was only nineteen years old at the time. Soon after, he became active in the important Paris salons, starting with his first exhibition at the Salon des Tuileries in 1929 and followed by shows at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d’Automne, Les Peintres Témoins de leur Temps, the Salon du Dessin, the salon de la Peinture à l’Eau, and the Salon des Terres Latines.

As one of France’s most esteemed artists, Hambourg received the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, his country’s highest honor, in 1951. Vincent Auriol, the president of the French Republic, presented the award to him at a reception in his honor at the Élysée Palace. In 1961 André Malraux named him an Officer of the Legion of Honor. Among an impressive list of cultural awards and honors, he also holds the Croix de Guerre, which he received for his military service from 1939 to 1945, as well as the prestigious Grande Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, which he accepted in 1961.

“André Hambourg manages to decant a landscape until it has attained a kind of surreal mystery. He has a taste for simplicity, for fine, accurate brushstrokes and soft colours” - Charles Théophile