SUR LA TERRASSE. ROGER CHASTEL. GAZETTE DU BON TON

Principio del formularioThe Gazette du Bon Ton, put out by the retailer of the same name, was considered the trendsetting magazine of the era. Founded by Lucien Vogel and targeting Paris's upper class, it ran from 1912-1925. Only ten colour plates were printed per issue, and artists vied for the prestige of illustrating the latest Parisian fashion and lifestyle trends. As these pochoirs attest, the high style and iconic femininity made the items featured in the pages "must have's" -- right down to the prayer statue on top of the chest of drawers!

This pochoir - created when single layers of color are added by hand to a lithograph using a stencil – shows.

Roger Chastel (Roger, Édouard Henri Chastel), born March 25, 1897 in Paris and died July 12, 1981 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye1, is a French painter of the École de Paris whose work is part of the limit of non-figuration.
The painter's father, Édouard Chastel, born in Paris, of Auvergne and Poitevin origins on the paternal side, Brazilian on the maternal side2, is a banker and collector3. His mother (Marthe Marchand) was born in Auvergne. First child in a family that will have five4. Roger Chastel was born at 32 Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th district, but his parents went a few months later to live in a private mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine then rue Desbordes-Valmore around 19055. Roger Chastel spent his holidays with his two brothers and two sisters in a village in Auvergne, the cradle of the family, where he drew animals, landscapes and portraits6, or in Benerville, near Deauville where his parents owned a house, the Villa Timgad7. With his brother Jean he frequently visits the Louvre and, back to the painting, they try to reproduce it from memory8. From the age of fifteen Roger Chastel expressed his decision to be a painter9.
While continuing his education (Gerson College in 1906, Lycée Sainte-Croix, Lycée Carnot and Lycée Janson-de-Sailly) 10, Roger Chastel drew at the Jardin d'Acclimatation. Renouncing the baccalaureate, he enrolled in 1912 in the drawing course of the Académie Julian10 where he bonded with the painter Jean Subervie11, prepared the entrance exam to the School of Fine Arts and attended there in 1914 the Fernand Cormon workshop, which he quickly left to return to the Académie Julian in Jean-Paul Laurens' workshop10. He draws simultaneously at the Louvre. Carrying out his military service in 1915, adjourned in August10, he was mobilized in 1916 in light artillery10, trained Canadian horses6 in Caen, was assigned to the Somme front, the Chemin des Dames, evacuated from Verdun and transferred to service auxiliary in Vernon, at the requisition of horses 6.

1919-1944
Demobilized in 1919, Roger Chastel enrolled at the Ranson Academy (Montparnasse), followed the Argentine painter Araujo when he founded his own academy on rue Bréa10. Having rented an apartment-studio on rue d'Assas, opposite the entrance to the Luxembourg garden12, to survive, he drew for Comœdia, La Rampe where he illustrated a lament by Francis Carco, made caricatures for the political weekly L ' New Europe and satirical drawings for La Gazette du Bon Ton10. In 1920 he left for a few months to join his brother Jean in Berlin where he worked for various magazines and created costumes for journals with a big show10. Returned to Paris, he produced in 1920 in Benerville, encouraged by the designer Sem who watched him draw13 two satirical albums on the regulars of the casino of Deauville, Le Trust des Perles and, in collaboration with Pierre Mourgue, Eh well, dance now !

Roger Chastel took part in group exhibitions, from 1923 at the salon d'automne10 then at the Salon des Tuileries. He met in 1925 at the Bal Nègre Suzanne Fromont, married and mother of two little girls (Christiane and Mytil), whom he married in 193114. After having illustrated in 1926 the programs of the Swedish Ballets presented by Jacques Hébertot and reports by Marcel Astruc in the picturesque districts of Paris (Les Halles, La Villette, Les Six jours in the weekly Vu, edited by Lucien Vogel, he decided to devote himself exclusively to painting.

Continuing to exhibit in the Parisian Salons, Roger Chastel moved permanently to Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 192810 in a fairly dilapidated house from the 17th century15. He then gave lessons for a time in a private school for young English women6. In 1930 he met Paul Guillaume16 who put him in touch with Jeanne Castel. It was in his gallery, rue du Général-Beuret17 then avenue de Messine, that he presented his first three solo exhibitions in 1930, 1934 and 193510. Paul Guillaume also accompanies Jean Mistler and his wife, Chastel will paint a portrait in 1933. Staying in 1931 on the French Riviera with his wife's parents, he painted landscapes.

Roger Chastel obtains in 1932 for Still Life with Pink Shell the “Grand Prix de Peinture” created by Jacques Darnetal and endowed by Georges Bernheim, exhibiting the same year at the Georges Bernheim gallery, rue La Boétie10. The Paul Guillaume gallery exhibited it in 1933.