Alix AYMÉ - Original drawing – Maternity with a scarf.

Alix AYME (1894.1989)

Original drawing – Maternity with a scarf.

Ink and pencil on tracing paper, with squaring.

Circa 1935. Format: 20.50 x 34.80 cm.

Superb drawing by the French artist which emanates a fine and delicate nostalgia typical of her graphic work.

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

Alix Aymé born in 1894 in Marseille, apprenticed with Desvallière and especially her master Maurice Denis, a member of the Nabis group. Under his authority, she participated in the decor of the Champs Élysées theater. With her friend Valentine Reyre, she works in the Sacred Art workshops of Maurice Denis and creates numerous woodcuts to illustrate several works. In 1920 she married her first husband Paul de Fautereau-Vassel and went with him to Hanoi and Shanghai. They return to Paris but Alix Aymé leaves him and goes back to settle with her son in Asia. From 1929, she was mandated by the general government of Indochina for a two-year mission in Laos. During this period she executed the wall decoration of the reception room of the Palace of HM Sisawang-Vong, King of Luang-Prabang. During this journey she gathered important documentation which appeared during the Colonial exhibition in the pavilions of Laos. She was the first European woman to brave the Laotian forest and bush. In 1931 she married Lieutenant Colonel Georges Aymé for her second marriage in Paris. After returning to Asia, she learned about new techniques, notably lacquer. From 1934 to 1939, she was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts of Indochina where she actively contributed to reviving the art of lacquer alongside Joseph Inguimberty. After a short stay in Paris at the start of the war in In 1938, she returned to Asia and returned permanently to France after the tragic death of her son Michel in 1945. She continued to work until the end of her life in 1989.

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