THE MEAT-EATERS

painting by Raymond Duvillé

meat-eaters

eaters of meat

 

 

NOTE

The original title (if any) of this painting may have been
Personnages surréalistes.

Wikipédia (typically) dismisses Raymond Duvillé (1916-1997) as '...an off-beat, minor painter
who recreated man's and art's condition according to his own peculiar vision...
Each canvas pullulates with figures involved in some gigantic conflict while engaged in their own private struggles -
in an atmosphere at once Biblical, cubist and surrealist - rather in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch...'

(One might add certain reminders of both Stanley Spencer and Francis Bacon.)

«...peintre marginal qui refait au pinceau l'histoire de l'homme et celle de l'art selon sa vision....
Chaque toile fourmille de personnages contradictoires pris sur le vif de leur propre histoire,
dans une atmosphère a la fois biblique, cubiste et surréaliste où l'on serait aux portes du pays de Jérôme Bosch. »

This painting, found at a vide-grenier in SW France in 2010, is in a private collection.
It is reproduced here in mirror-image.

A large number of Duvillé's paintings was offered for sale in two auctions in Paris (2008) by the Joron-Deren auction-house.
Many remained unsold, some went for as little as 20 euros, and none reached as much 200 euros.

Their titles were, typically,

Vue surréaliste
Composition fantastique
Composition surréaliste
Voici que la lumière a épousé la nuit
Le combat des géants
Intellectuels à la recherche du Sens de l'histoire
Prisonnier
L'homme, l'amour, la mort
Personnages fantastiques
Entre l'être et le néant
etc.

 

On no account sign up to the ArtPrice web-page (the only one on Duvillé apart from wikipédia)
thinking that you will see photos of any of these paintings.
I was swindled out of 20 euros for a one-day 'membership'.