Sketch for Frescoed Frieze

Sketch for Frescoed Frieze is an interesting preparatory study realized by the artist Paul Bony , a famous French painter active in the last century. The artwork is in good state of preservation. The paper presents some folds and some rips on the right, left, and higher margins. Furthermore, the higher left corner of the paper is missing. The paper presents numerous inscriptions on both sides: above the drawing, barely readable, the writing “ frise per ecole maternelle (fregio per scuola materna) ”; on the right “ H teur: cm80 ”; on the lower right “ frise pour préaux d’Ecole Maternelle/Fresque ”.

On the back, there are other inscriptions, probably for the composition of the artwork. In the center, one says “ Hommage à de la Tremaye a Paul Verà ”, with the signature and date at the bottom “ PB [ill.]1 fevrier 1932 ”.

The artist Paul Bony was a painter and glassmaker. His wife was Adeline (1917-1998), an artist as well, daughter of Jean Hébert-Stevens and Pauline Peugniez, who placed glass art at the service of figurative art. In 1944, he inherited the company of the parents-in-law. He drew glass windows for sacred places and curated the realization of artistic glass windows for major French artists like Rouault, Matisse, and Chagall. He was an expert landscape painter, focusing especially on the views of Normandy, where he chose to live with his wife.

This preparatory sketch for a frescoed frieze, to realize in the game room of a kindergarten, is very fascinating especially for the subject in Art Deco-Cubist style . Paul Verà, to whom Bony pays homage, is a French painter and a pioneer in the Art Deco style.