1. Biography

2. Style and motifs

3. Principal Works

4. References

.

'Ivanna Lemaître (1893-1973) was a Russian painter and mosaicist.^[1]

Biography

Ivanna Lemaître was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1893 and died in Nice, France in 1973. A Soviet -Russian aristocrat who was exiled to Paris during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, she studied to become a painter and mosaicist in Montmartre, Rue de la Chaumière. She married André Hubert Lemaître, another prominent artist in fresco painting, and often worked side by side with him to fulfill commissions from Parisian patrons and state orders. Their most renowned frescos include work from the church of Meudon (1927), the salon of Marechal Lyautey at the Colonial Exhibition of 1931,^[2]and at the Palace of the Golden Door (Palais de la Porte Dorée).^[3]

During the German occupation of France in WWII, Lemaître moved to the French Riviera on the southeastern coast of France. She worked along the coast from Cannes to Monaco painting portraits of her friends Jean Cocteau, Andre Gide, Francois Mauriac, and Serge Lifar, and other French writers and artists. Lemaitre developed her style to include different mediums such as mosaic, ink, oil, and watercolor. Her frequent subject matter were villages and chapels in the country, views of the Mediterranean, and mythology.

Ivanna Lemaître was buried in a Russian cemetery in Nice, France.

Style and motifs

Lemaître and her husband collaborated on the decoration of many churches with fresco and paintings. While interested in Eastern religion and Oriental traditions, Asian myths and religious teachings about the Buddha, Krishna, and Confucius are common motifs in her work. Her panels would include scenes from the lives of these figures along with the music, theater, and culture of the Far East. Lemaître worked with the subject matter of foreign religions often considered mysterious and complicated to the European public often referring to the "inscrutable Orient" in her paintings. She incorporated images of the primordial elements fire, water, and earth, all celebrated in Asian beliefs and associated with spiritual connections. Frescoes by the Lemaîtres showcased a pantheon of oriental figures on the walls which gave the contributions of the Far East a full, relatively accurate description compared to the Orientalist conventions adopted by other French painters such as Delacroix, Ingres, and Renoir. The Lemaîtres sought to present Eastern religion without the typical, exotic symbols or excessive stylization of Art Deco.

Principal Works

1925 : Monastery of the Recollets in Toulouse

1927 : Church of Meudon (faces of Jean Cocteau, Jacques Maritain, etc.)

1931 : Salon of Maréchal Lyautey for the Colonial Exposition, Porte Dorée

1935 : Frescoes for the scholar group Davout in Paris

1937 : Face of the pavillon of the Maroquinerie Française de l'Exposition Universelle in 1937, Paris

1937 : Maroufle canvases for the School of Arts and Works in Paris

1962 : Sanctuary of Sacré-Coeur in Nice : monumental fresco in mosaic (50 square meters) ornamenting the triumphal arc

1963 : Two mosaics in hommage to Jean Médecin and Jean Cocteau at La Porte Fausse, Vieux-Nice

1965 : Mosaics for the Savings Bank of Nice

1968 : Pannels in mosaic for a school in Arles

1968 : Mosaics ornamenting the face of the gym of Eucalyptus in Nice

1973 : School of Drancy, mural decorations completed by her son Jean Lemaître after her death.

Mosaics for multiple buildings in Nice, notably the Centenaire and the Michelet.

References

Morton, P. A. (1998) ‘National and colonial: The Musee des Colonies at the..’, Art Bulletin, 80(2), p. 357. doi: 10.2307/3051237.

http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00107294?rskey=GdI3Vd&result=1

https://books.google.com/books?id=vZOGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Ivanna+Lema%C3%AEtre&source=bl&ots=X2L3pEzSZ3&sig=ACfU3U0s-UTIrQa7-SF6NOuNxq2eNt7RgA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCg43e4dfgAhVCsZ4KHYILBr04ChDoATACegQIAxAB#v=onepage&q=Ivanna%20Lema%C3%AEtre&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=4OoBXAMKZJsC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=ivanna+lemaitre&source=bl&ots=o3gUiri8rt&sig=ACfU3U2gxbyKKrvsX95nWoWHTg2Yad76dw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXrK6et_7gAhWsHjQIHblOC244ChDoATAAegQIABAB#v=onepage&q=ivanna%20lemaitre&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=X-E7P9dVSbgC&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=ivanna+lemaitre&source=bl&ots=bqQAl7u4aN&sig=ACfU3U3Q02iS1NbgjQDKK2WU6WI5If-SuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXrK6et_7gAhWsHjQIHblOC244ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=ivanna%20lemaitre&f=false

http://www.paris-artdeco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Magazin-NY.pdf

http://archivesetdocumentation.centrepompidou.fr/ead.html?id=FRM5050-X0031_0000173&c=FRM5050-X0031_0000173_FRM5050-X0031127975#!{%22content%22:[%22FRM5050-X0031_0000173_FRM5050-X0031127975%22,false,%22%22]}

http://archivesetdocumentation.centrepompidou.fr/ead.html?id=FRM5050-X0031_0000173&c=FRM5050-X0031_0000173_FRM5050-X0031127975#!{%22content%22:[%22FRM5050-X0031_0000173_FRM5050-X0031127976%22,false,%22%22]}

https://www.patrimoine-histoire.fr/Patrimoine/Paris/Paris-Sainte-Helene.htm

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