Code: 5036
Dimensions:
A very beautiful large mid 20th century French naïf oil on canvas depicting a tree full of colourful birds, all different species, by André Demonchy.
The work is signed lower right, inscribed on the tree trunk and again with title on the reverse. Presented in a fine Montparnasse frame, this is truly a masterpiece of French naïf painting.
The artist is featured in Anatole Jakovsky's ''Peintres Naïfs'' which is considered the bible of 20th century French naïf painters.
Artist: André Demonchy (French, 1914-2003)
Title: The Bird Tree
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 34 x 29.5 inches (86cm x 75cm) including the frame
André Demonchy was a true naïf painter of the 20th century. Orphaned by WW1, he spent his childhood and adolescence on various farms in the Yonne district, placed there by Welfare authorities.
After army service, he worked on the railways. But he had suffered too much and never known affection. He was haunted by leaden, snowladen skies.
He started to paint around 1946. Fate smiled on him as an artist fairly quickly, with regular exhibitions between 1949 and 1964, but not to the extent of his being able to give up his work on the railway.
