GRUAU René French School The Carnival of Venice Oil on canvas signed Certificate of authenticity

GRUAU René (1909 / 2004)

The Venice Carnival.

Oil on canvas monogrammed lower right.

65x81 cm

Certificate of authenticity.

René GRUAU, pseudonym of Renato Zavagli-Ricciardelli delle Caminate, born February 4, 1909 in Rimini (Italy), and died March 31, 2004 in Rome (Italy), is a Franco-Italian illustrator, poster designer and painter renowned for his illustrations for fashion and advertising.

Renato Zavagli was born to an Italian aristocrat father, Count Zavagli-Ricciardelli delle Caminate, and a French mother from the Parisian aristocracy, Marie Gruau de la Chesnaie, whose maiden name he would later keep. The couple separated when Renato Zavagli was still a young child; he then lived with his mother in Milan.

Then aged fifteen in 1924 and abandoning his idea of ​​becoming an architect, René Gruau - he used his mother's name and Frenchified his first name - moved to Paris and published his first drawing as a fashion designer on the advice of an Italian fashion editor. His drawings subsequently appeared in Italy, particularly for the fashion magazine Lidel, but also in Germany and England. At the time, magazines used illustrations rather than photographs. In 1930, he created a first illustration for Balmain.

From 1935 to 1939, his reputation grew, he was published in Femina, Marianne, Marie Claire, Silhouettes, L'Officiel, the magazine du Figaro, and other publications in the United States and England.

During the Second World War, he lived in Lyon then in Cannes. Then installed in Cannes, 1946 really marked the beginning of success, and his first collaboration with International Textiles for which he would design all the covers until 1984.

1947 marked the beginning of his long collaboration with Dior, with whom he helped launch the post-war New Look. The following year, he moved to the United States and worked for Harper's Bazaar and occasionally for Voguen, then became Flair's exclusive artist.

From 1956, he devoted himself to the cabarets of the Lido (he designed for this establishment until 1994), of the Moulin Rouge from 1961, to the Casino de Paris, and collaborated with Jacques Fath, the Boussac company which owned Christian Dior, Eminence, Blizzand (raincoats). During his career, 167 luxury brands used his illustrations. He also collaborates on numerous magazines for men such as Adam, Club or Sir6. He also designs sets and costumes for the theater. These years marked the supremacy of photography to the detriment of illustration in the press; René Gruau will then specialize in fashion advertising in addition to theater, returning from time to time to fashion design.

From 1950 to his death in 2004 in Rome, the man who was nicknamed "the last survivor of the great fashion illustrators" while illustration lost its predominance in magazines compared to photography, worked for the biggest names in couture , Balmain, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Rochas while continuing fashion designs for Elle, Vogue, Madame Figaro, and L'officiel de la Couture.

From 1977, but especially from 1986, numerous exhibitions of his illustrations took place in France or abroad, retracing a career of illustrations defined by Stéphane Rolland as "infinite grace, image of a worldly, detached Parisianism and insolent. 

The story of René Gruau is closely linked to the Dior brand and its Couturiern: both were young illustrators in their twenties when they met in 1930 at Le Figaro.

In 1947 his friend Christian Dior commissioned him to design the advertising design for the first perfume, Miss Diorn, as well as the famous “Bar” jacket, symbol of the New Look. He did the campaign for the second perfume, Diorama, lingerie and stockings... In the 1950s, when he was in demand by all the couturiers, Gruau designed the launch poster for Diorissimo, then for the lipstick Rouge kiss. However, photography is gradually replacing illustration in advertisements. But Dior remains faithful. In 1968, he signed the campaign for Eau sauvage, drawings transformed into a television advertisement. Other works will remain emblematic: the Diormatic makeup line in 1971, the Diorella perfume dated the following year with the image of a modern woman in pants...

He remained loyal to Parfums Christian Dior for forty years, until the 1980s when he signed the advertising campaign for men's perfume, Jules6. René Gruau, according to John Galliano, “captured the style and spirit of Dior”, all in movement, with the representation of a chic Parisian, and using his three favorite colors: red, black and white.

At the beginning of 2011, Galliano presented a haute couture collection - his last - in homage to the fluid style, with contrasting ombré effects and chiaroscuro colors, with thick black lines which surround the silhouette of the illustrator.

Gruau's work is infinitely rich, its sovereign line has accompanied female representation for nearly sixty years. A witness to his time, Gruau has also visually marked several generations through his timeless work.

At the end of his life, he developed a personal pictorial production, which moved away from the feminine domain that he spent his career glorifying.

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