Mercédès Legrand

Mercédès Legrand
Mercédès Legrand, circa 1920
Born14 July 1893
Almodóvar del Campo, Castilla–La Mancha, Spain
Died17 July 1945
Avignon, France
Other namesMercedes Legrand
EducationRoyal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels
Occupation(s)Visual artist, illustrator, poet
Known forPainter, enamelist, sculptor, potter
Spouse(s)Roger van Gindertael (m. 1921–),
Charles Edmond Kayser (m. 1928–1946; her death)
Children3

Mercédès Legrand (1893 – 1945) was a Spanish-born Belgium painter, enamelist, potter, illustrator, and poet.[1] Also known as Mercedes Legrand.

Early life and education

Mercédès Legrand was born on 14 July 1893, Almodóvar del Campo, Castilla–La Mancha, Spain to Belgian parents.[2] The first ten years of her childhood were spent in Spain, before she moved abroad to Brussels, Belgium, England and Germany for schooling.[2]

She attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, from 1916 to 1919.[3]

In 1921, she married a classmate Roger Van Gindertael [fr], who was an art critic and painter, they settled in Paris in the 1920s.[3] Together they had a child, Jean-Michel (born 1924) in Brussels.

Career

In September 1920, Legrand completed a World War I memorial in Nassogne, Belgium, commissioned by the municipality, and is depicting a civilian confronted with the remains of a soldier.[4]

Legrand, Van Gindertael, and Michel de Goeye co-created Hélianthe, an avant-garde arts review magazine.[2] In Paris, she exhibited regularly artists such as Jean Pougny, Emmanuel Mané-Katz, Raoul Dufy, Edouard Vuillard, Georges Rouault, Othon Friesz, and André Lhote.[3]

In 1928 (or in 1937, depending on the source), she married Jewish artist Charles Edmond Kayser.[2][5] Together they had two daughters. In 1941, the family moved to Limoges, where her husband was working. During this period she started working in enamels, which were to become an important part of her work.[3] They moved to Avignon in the 1940s, where she died in 1945 from the inhalation of nitric acid while enameling.

Her archives are held at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky.[5] In 2020, a posthumous retrospective exhibition of Legrand's artwork, Mercédès Legrand (1893–1945): à fleur de toile: exposition, was shown at the Musée du Mont-de-Piété de Bergues in Bergues, France, and at Famenne & Art Museum (FAM) in in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium.[3][4][5]

Publications

  • Legrand, Mercédès (1925). Horcajo. Roger Van Gindertael (engravings). Brussels: Editions de la Vache Rose.[6]
  • Legrand, Mercédès (1928). Géographies: Poèmes. Valery Larbaud (prologue). Maestricht: A.A.M. Stols.
  • d' Ors, Eugenio (1930). Jardin des Plantes (in French). Jean Cassou (translator), Francis de Miomandre (translator), Mercédès Legrand (translator) (3 ed.). Paris: Éditions J.O. Fourcade.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mercédès Legrand.
  1. ^ "K. G. Saur". DeGruyter.com. 2021. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  2. ^ a b c d "Legrand, Mercédès". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00106844. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  3. ^ a b c d e Descamps, Patrick (2025-01-17). "Mercédès Legrand (1893-1945)". La Tribune de l'Art (in French). Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  4. ^ a b "Mercédès Legrand au Famenne & Art Museum". TV Lux (in French). January 4, 2021. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  5. ^ a b c "Legrand, Mercedes (1893–1945)". Bibliothèque Kandinsky (in French). Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  6. ^ Revue d'art (in French). 1926. p. 6 – via Google Books.