The card game - dated 57

Oil on canvas signed and dated lower left.

Dimensions: 130 x 195cm, 

 Roger Chastel delivers a peaceful and cheerful family scene, sparkling with its acidulous colors. 

A family is gathered around a table on which carafes, bottles, glasses and fruit are arranged; evidence of a family meal that has just ended. The atmosphere is relaxed; the father seems to be playing card tricks on his two boys who only have eyes for the game; the mother, leaning on the table, is pensive and resting. 

Roger Chastel, as usual, stylizes and simplifies the forms, he uses flat areas of paint which can make the readability of the painting difficult at first glance. He is situated between abstraction and figuration, we can call him "Abstract Figurative".

The range of colors in yellows, oranges and ochres is successful and harmonious; the painter demonstrates here his talents as a colorist.

Student of the Ranson Academy and of JP Laurens. In his work, strongly influenced by Cubism, he seeks the essential through synthesis and refinement.

He painted one of the panels of the Palace of the League of Nations in Geneva alongside Vuillard, Roussel and M. Denis. 

He was a respected professor at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. 

He participated in numerous personal and collective exhibitions and represented France at the Venice Biennale in 1952.

Bibliography :

• B. Dorival “The painters of the 20th century”; J.L.Ferrier “Modern times”
• J. Mistler, Roger Chastel, collection “The masters of tomorrow”, Editions Sequana, April 43.
• R Huygue and J. Rudel, “Art and the Modern World” Paris, 1970 Volume 2.
• J Cassou, “Panorama of the plastic arts”, Paris 1960.
• Dictionary of Contemporary Abstract Art, Editions Hazan, 1957.

Museums :

   Paris, National Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg Museum. 

   Museums of Nice. 

   Turin Museum of Modern Art

   Museum of Tunis. 

   Baltimore Museum, Boston.

   Pittsburgh Museum (Carnegie Institute) – 

   Sao Paulo Museum, Brazil.