Self-taught French painter, born in 1894 in the Lyon area, died in 1964.
Life
Louis-Auguste Déchelette drew from childhood. A plasterer and house painter, he travelled around France as a journeyman (compagnon) between the ages of sixteen and thirty-one. Supported by Georges Henri Rivière, he was exhibited twice during the war by Jeanne Bucher, who showed his clandestine so-called “resistance” paintings. After the war Jean-François Jaeger exhibited him several times between 1947 and 1960.
The State bought some ten canvases from him between 1943 and 1965, including Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Paris, acquired in 1949, the very year it was painted, and now in the Musée national d’art moderne.
The work
Déchelette painted mainly allegories on social and political subjects, served by puns and a very lively humour. His paintings of the Occupation denounce Fascism, Nazism and, more broadly, social conflict; Nonchalant was painted in 1943, at the height of the resistance to Nazism in Paris. In 1949 he painted a wedding in front of the façade of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (oil on canvas, 92 x 65 cm).
Exhibitions and collections
- Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, two exhibitions during the Second World War
- Galerie Jeanne Bucher, under the direction of Jean-François Jaeger, several exhibitions between 1947 and 1960
- “Compagnons de route”, Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris, 23 May to 20 July 2019
- Collections: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou (Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Paris, 1949)