Félix Labisse (March 9, 1905January 27, 1982) was a French

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

painter, illustrator, and designer. He was born in

Marchiennes Marchiennes () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It was fictionally portrayed in Émile Zola's Germinal. Population Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 647 communes ...

. He divided his time between Paris and the Belgian coast from 1927.Bataille 1989, p. 188. In

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

he met

James Ensor James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...

, who influenced his work. Beginning in 1931 he designed for the theater. His paintings depict fantastical hybrid creatures, and are often erotic. He painted the first of a series of blue women in 1960; among them is the ''Bain Turquoise''. He was the subject of a film by

Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct short films including '' Night and Fog ...

, '' Visite à Félix Labisse'' (1947). In 1966 he was elected to the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

. In 1973 his paintings were shown in a retrospective exhibition at the

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. He died in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

in 1982.

Notes

References

* Bataille, G. (1989). ''The tears of Eros''. San Francisco: City Lights Books. *Waldberg, P. (1971). ''Felix Labisse''. ruxelles André de Rache. 1905 births 1982 deaths French designers French illustrators French surrealist artists Members of the Académie des beaux-arts 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters Surrealist paintings {{France-painter-20thC-stub