André DIGNIMONT 1891 - 1965 Etching

Raised etching, under glass on paper, depicting a half-naked woman, French work, early 20th century, by André DIGNIMONT.
Signed upper right by the artist, Framed 16 x 22 cm, Etching: 10 x 14 cm.
André Dignimont: French illustrator, painter and engraver, born August 22, 1891 in Paris, where he died February 4, 1965.
A prominent figure in Montmartre, he was renowned for his prints and light illustrations of feminine beauty.
The son of a wine merchant, André Dignimont was initially a pupil of the Oratorians at the Collège de Juilly, before studying languages in England (Craven College, Beckenham, Kent, where his fellow student was the future actor André Luguet, of whom he remained a friend). His return to France in 1911 led to seven years of regimental service: three years of military service, four years of war. André Dignimont then studied with Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian. Settling in Montmartre, he led "the merry life of the rapins" (hence his enduring nickname "le Grand Dig") in the company of fellow students and friends, including Jean-Gabriel Domergue, Roger de la Fresnaye, Louis Marcoussis, Robert Lotiron and André Warnod.
His career, which spanned more than four decades, took him from portraiture and the female nude (watercolors, drawings and prints - Dignimont did not paint on canvas) to book illustration and theater set design, linking him with painters, writers (Colette, Francis Carco, Pierre Mac Orlan) and actors. In 1927, he left Montmartre to settle permanently at 1 rue Boutarel, which he turned into a museum of unusual objects thanks to his passion for flea markets.
It was later that André Dignimont began to take an interest in landscapes, encouraged by André Dunoyer de Segonzac, and naturally drawn to them by his strolls around Paris, as well as by his summer vacations, as recounted by Françoise Py-Chereau: at lawyer-academician Maurice Garçon's home in Ligugé in the Poitou region, at Jules Cavaillès' home in the Yonne, at Colette's home in Saint-Tropez, at Henri Jeanson's home in Equemauville near Honfleur, and near Paimpol, where Betty de Mauduit made her Château de Bourblanc an artistic and literary haven where Dignimont could meet Pierre Benoit, Joseph Kessel, Francis Carco and Louis Touchagues9.
Colette reveals: "When I want to find myself alone with you, I politely brush aside your acrobats, your sailors and your cherry-mouthed non-commissioned officers, I say sorry to your sweet feminine cattle, I turn the corner of an empty house whose shutter flutters, peacefully stained with blood, and I meet you bent over a flowery cul-de-lampe - Jeanette's hearts, narcissi and columbines mingled (let's not forget the forget-me-not!), which you paint with the care, emotion and dreaminess of an old maiden".
He illustrated newspapers such as Le Rire, Demain, Monsieur - Revue des élégances, des bonnes manières et de tout ce qui intéresse Monsieur, Le Crapouillot, Le Sourire, Femina, la Gazette du Bon Ton, La Guirlande, Comœdia, Flirt... In addition to his work as an illustrator and painter, he played minor roles in films (see Dignimont's film roles below) and was a member of the jury (presided by Marcel Pagnol) at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.
André Dignimont died in Paris on February 4, 1965. His tomb, in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris (27th division), is adorned with a bronze medallion featuring his portrait sculpted by Paul Belmondo. His wife died on February 28, 1981.
"A singular caprice of fate! Since he was a teenager, Dignimont had frequented nothing but bals musettes, sailors' bars and brothel lounges, yet to pay tribute to him, his works are being assembled in the gilded salons of an official palace. With the wing of his felt hat pulled down over his eye and a cigarette in his mouth, he wouldn't have dared enter."

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