"Venise en Fleurs"

Venice en Fleurs. Original colored lithograph on arches paper by the French artist, Andre Masson. Done in 1975. Edition: 59/125. Pencil signed lower right. Edition signed lower left. From the Je Reve portfolio. Overall framed with original thin brass frame and white mat 32 by 24 inches. Condition: Excellent. Provenance: Sarasota, Florida estate.

André Masson

B. 1896, BALAGNY-SUR-THÉRAIN, FRANCE; D. 1987, PARIS
André Masson was born on January 4, 1896, in Balagny-sur-Thérain, a town just north of Paris. A childhood full of time in close proximity to nature made a lasting impression on Masson, and he drew inspiration from nature and landscape imagery throughout his career. At age 11 he enrolled in the Académie royale des beaux-arts and the École des arts décoratifs in Brussels, where he studied with the Symbolist painter Constant Montald. He first encountered modern art through the work of James Ensor before learning about the ideas of the Futuristsand Cubists. At age 16, he was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie for painting. Masson pursued further training in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. While in Paris, he became interested in paintings by Nicolas Poussin, particularly their representations of mythological themes, subjects that he would later treat in his own work. With the outbreak of World WarI, Masson joined the French infantry in 1915 and fought in the battles of the Somme. He sustained a serious chest wound and was hospitalized for an extended period. Deeply traumatized by his wartime experiences, he also suffered a spiritual crisis and was briefly confined to a hospital for mental illness.
During the early 1920s in Paris, Masson had a short Cubist-inspired phase before he became acquainted with the Surrealists, who introduced him to automatic writing. In 1924 André Breton invited him to join the Surrealist group.