Dunoyer de Segonzac André

André Dunoyer de Segonzac was a French artist who was born in Boussy-Saint-Antoine in 1884 and died in Paris in 1974. He was a French painter and graphic artist. He was educated at the Free Academy of Luc-Olivier Merson and at the Académie de La Palette. He soon gave up teaching in favor of an independent course, free from any masters, later citing 1906 as the starting date of his artistic career. In the early 1910s he became a member of Section d'Or. He was one of the modernists to participate in the Armory Show which opened in New York in 1913, with subsequent showings in Chicago and Boston. He drew on his military experiences - learning etching in 1919 - to illustrate The Wooden Crosses by Roland Dorgelès (published in 1921). Segonzac found etching to be a congenial medium for his spontaneous drawing style, and by the end of his life had produced some 1600 plates. In 1947 he published his series of etchings illustrating Virgil's Georgics. According to Anne Distel, chief curator of the Musée d'Orsay: "The technical perfection and the noble tone, which carried the cachet of the original, but was imbued with an unfailing lyricism, make this work Segonzac's masterpiece. It should be included in a list of the most beautiful illustrated books of [the 20th] century." The gossamer quality of his etchings contrasted with the thickly painted surfaces and generally sombre colors of his oil paintings, which reflected his admiration for Courbet and Cézanne. His subjects are landscapes, still lifes and nudes.