Emile Aubry

Aubry’s ‘Holiday in Esterel’ beholds all the style and flair associated with the 1920’s. There is an Art Deco panache in the way the lady’s bold and elegant figure strikes out against the bright blue of the sea.

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Aubry’s father came from the Franche-Comté region in Eastern France but was posted to Setif, Algeria, with the French Army, where he remained after his posting was complete. There, he met Aubry’s mother, who, while French, had been living in the region for thirty years. Émile grew up there before continuing his education at a boarding school in Paris. He pursued his artistic talents and studied under both Jean-Léon Gérôme and Carolus-Duran.

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While having an anchoring in Gérôme’s academism, Aubry’s style changed and evolved throughout his career, receptive to many of the new artistic developments. As well as his Art Deco inspired period, he also had phases closer to Orientalism and also a mythical symbolism. What remained constant, and married well with all of them, was a certain stylised, languid fluidity in his approach, making his work highly appealing and enticing to the eye. He regularly exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1905 and 1937. Over the course of his career, he received several distinctions, including the Prix de Rome in 1907, the Prix Henner in 1926, and a gold medal in 1920. In 1938, he was appointed an officer of the Légion d’Honneur, and from 1935 he was also a member of the Institut de France.

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