Alix AYMÉ – Original drawing – Maternity with a headscarf.

Alix AYMÉ (1894.1989)

Original drawing – Maternity with a headscarf.

Ink and pencil on tracing paper, with gridding.

Circa 1935. Format: 20.50 x 34.80 cm.

Superb drawing by the French artist, emanating a subtle and delicate nostalgia typical of her graphic work.

Probably the preparatory drawing for the painting on silk and gold reproduced in the draft catalogue raisonné published online by the Association of Friends of Alix Aymé

Alix Aymé, born in Marseille in 1894, apprenticed with Desvallières and especially with her mentor, Maurice Denis, a member of the Nabis group. Under his guidance, she contributed to the decoration of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. With her friend Valentine Reyre, she worked in Maurice Denis's Sacred Art workshops, creating numerous wood engravings to illustrate several books. In 1920, she married her first husband, Paul de Fautereau-Vassel, and traveled with him to Hanoi and Shanghai. They returned to Paris, but Alix Aymé left him and went back to Asia with her son. From 1929, she was commissioned by the Governor-General of Indochina for a two-year mission to Laos. During this period, she executed the mural decoration for the reception hall of the Palace of His Majesty Sisawang-Vong, King of Luang Prabang. During this journey, she gathered extensive documentation, which was displayed in the Laotian pavilions at the Colonial Exposition. She was the first European woman to venture into the Laotian forest and bush. In 1931, she married Lieutenant Colonel Georges Aymé in Paris, her second husband. After returning to Asia, she learned new techniques, notably lacquer. From 1934 to 1939, she was a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (School of Fine Arts of Indochina), where she actively contributed to reviving the art of lacquer alongside Joseph Inguimberty. After a brief stay in Paris at the beginning of the war in 1938, she returned to Asia and finally came back to France after the tragic death of her son Michel in 1945. She continued to work until her death in 1989.

Bibliography: Pascal Lacombe and Guy Ferre – Alix Aymé, a painter in Indochina 1920-1945 – Somogy Editions 2012