La Cathédrale de Metz, 1954

Camille Hilaire   Famous Artists

Camille Hilaire is a painter born in 1916 in Metz, during a particular historical context because the city was annexed by Germany during this time. He died in 2004 in Normandy.

Camille HiIaire studied at the School of Fine Arts of Paris. In the middle of his career he decided to subscribe with a false name "Leblanc" and exhibited this way his work in the Parisian salons. Albrech Durer is a major source of inspiration for him, he even adopted his characteristic trait, he admired as well the light emanating from the pieces of the great Italian painters.

Despite the dark years his work went through, Camille Hilaire's pieces pierces the eye of the observer with its bright colors and light. During his trips, the artists absorbed the beauty around him from Normandy to Venise. A master of composition, the artist manages to add calm and passion to his canvases.

In 1947 he decided to turned towards a career as a professor and taught drawing and decorative composition at the National Superior School of Art of Nancy, before moving and teaching in Paris in 1958. He was open to new techniques and tried doing watercolors, lithography, tapestry and stained glass.

His work is a combination of figurative and post cubist style. Numerous monographs have been dedicated to him all around the world and he remains one of the painters who marked the Twentieth century in the history of art.