Marcel Francois Leprin

Marcel was at first a cabin-boy and then became a trainee bullfighter in Barcelona. He returned to Marseilles, where he painted decorations in bars, including those in the Bar Pierre, which were admired by Francis Carco, who called him a ‘damned painter’. In 1921 he moved to Paris, settled in Montmartre, and was admitted to the Salon d’Automne, of which he was made a member in the same year. His first successes released him from penury and enabled him to broaden the range of the subjects he treated.

Initially he painted the streets of old Montmartre and squalid corners of the Parisian suburbs, then, in succession, the port of Honfleur, Moret, Auxerre, views of town streets, villages, humble country churches and imposing cathedrals – all somewhat naive in style and technique, but with a feeling that, though the paintings are slightly more highly coloured with subtle shades of grey and more careful of details, is reminiscent of Maurice Utrillo. Later, his style became more classical, though his urban landscapes, with their innate sense of perspective, lost nothing of their natural freshness. He then extended his range of subjects to still-lifes with natural objects and flowers, everyday street scenes, bullfights (his sole passion apart from painting), and portraits: his Beautiful Innkeeper is moving, as are his self-portraits, all the more so because he depicts himself in disguise: Man Wearing a Shako, Wounded Toreador. Leprin’s works convey both his happiness at giving expression to his feelings in a world where men fight to protect or glorify themselves, and a deep inner melancholy.

In 2001 a posthumous exhibition, Women in Provence and the Mediterranean (La Femme en Provence et en Méditerranée) was presented by the Foundation Regards de France at the château of Borély, Marseilles; and in 1964 the Musée Galliéra in Paris, held a retrospective of his work. In 1967 the Galerie Pacitti in Paris, organised an exhibition, Leprin – Montmartre in the 1920s (Leprin – Montmartre des années 20), and in 1987 the Salon d’Automne organised a homage, Marcel Leprin, Painter of Inner Reality (Marcel Leprin, peintre de la réalité intérieure).