Myrto Debard

Born on May 18, 1900 in Trescléoux, a small village in the Hautes-Alpes where her father was a pastor, Myrto Debard showed a real artistic temperament at a very young age. Supported by a family atmosphere where painting, music and poetry were part of daily life.

In 1913, his father was called to Algeria where he settled with his wife and his two youngest twin daughters, Lili and Myrto.

It was therefore at the School of Fine Arts in Algiers that Myrto Debard began her studies; She was a student of Léon Cauvy there and at that time met the sculptor Paul Belmondo with whom she established strong bonds of friendship.

A scholarship holder at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, she worked for five years at the Atelier Lucien Simon, then with Othon Friez.

She married Pastor Marcel Debard in 1925 and shortly after the young couple embarked for Lesotho where their two children were born.

Despite the difficult life in this austere country, Myrto Debard did not abandon her palette and in particular created a large composition 'Jesus among the sick' which can still be seen today in the small church of Masitisi.

In 1934, Pastor Debard was called to Dakar to exercise his ministry. He moved there with his family.

Myrto Debard then undertook a series of trips which took her to Niger, Mali and Mauritania, where she met “the blue men" whose nobility and mystery seduced her and who would mark all of her work.

From then on, she would meet them regularly, in the heart of the desert under the tents, in the familiar setting of the Bible and expertly succeeded in expressing their secret soul on canvas.

In 1947, forced for health reasons to abandon his ministry, Pastor Debard retired to Gorée, a small island opposite Dakar. Myrto revived the old house with its arcades flowering with bougainvillea and set up her workshop there.

It was there that, upon returning from her laborious study hikes, she composed her great works devoted either to African subjects such as Tea - The Dancers - The Sand Wind - The Mirage - The Mechoui - The Griots, or biblical series such as The Last Supper - The Betrayal of Judas - The Descent from the Cross, etc.

Her travels, which she continued for almost thirty more years, took her to Casamance, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, providing her with ever new inspiration.

However, she held a secret preference for the men of the desert whom she painted beautifully.

From 1937 to 1983, more than fifty exhibitions in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Bamako, Abidjan and Nouackchott, each year in Dakar, then in Gorée, punctuated the artist's career.

Finally and in parallel with this rich work, Myrto Debard wrote and published: Five African Tales, a detective novel composed of delicate poems.

She died in Paris on October 30, 1983.