Bord de Seine, Rouen, 1990

Charles Malle  

Charles Malle is a French painter born in 1935 in Douai, in the North of France. The death of his father when he was only 15 years old plunges him in a world of adults. It was during this period that he began painting and drawing. He then studied drawing at the School of Fine Arts of Saint-Luc-de-Tournai, Belgium, and then joined the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles in Roubaix. After his military service he began a career as a teacher, but his interest in the history of art, especially the Romanesque period, his passion for antiquities and his taste for the Haute Epoque, made him abandoned his career as a teacher to devote himself to the trade of antique furniture. He traveled through Spain, France and Portugal to find rare items, which he sold to the merchants of his region. In parallel, he continued his artistic journey and kept on painting. In 1955, he stayed for a summer in Spain, living from the paintings that he sold and exhibited in the markets.

His landscapes are reminiscent of Impressionism without imitating it. His works represent a past time, which the artist likes to remember or imagine, inviting us to a reflection about how time slowly flows like water, which is very present in his work.

Charles Malle exhibits his work in French galleries. His works are part of private collections, in France and in the United States, and are regularly sold in auction at Christie's