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| Portrait of Paule Vézelay by Léon de Smet 1918 |
Paule Vézelay (1892–1984) was one of the pioneers of twentieth-century abstraction in Britain. She worked across a range of media, exploring common ideas and forms through painting, sculpture and textiles.
Born Marjorie Watson-Williams in Bristol, she moved to London in 1912 to study at the London School of Art under George Belcher, the Punch cartoonist, developing a humorous, illustrative early style. In 1926 she moved to Paris and adopted the name ‘Paule Vézelay’, possibly in the hope that its French-sounding origin would afford her greater opportunities as an artist. Abandoning her figurative approach she began depicting organic, biomorphic and geometric forms as well as creating relief works and sculptures.
During her time in Paris, Vézelay became part of an international network of leading avant-garde artists, including Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber- Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, Maria Helena Viera da Silva, Joan Miró and Narlow Moss. She grew particularly close to André Masson and in 1934 joined the association of non-figurative artists "Abstraction-Création."
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| Paule Vézelay in her studio, 1934 |
Vézelay returned to England at the outbreak of the Second World War, where she found critics and the public less supportive of her modern style. She turned to textile design as an additional source of income but continued to work as an artist until the end of her life, and was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1983.
In 1942, quoting French poet Arthur Rimbaud, she proclaimed, "Cords have I stretched from bell-tower to bell-tower; garlands I strung from window to window; with gold have I linked one star to another, and I dance."
This is part 1 of a 2-part post on the works of Paule Vézelay:
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| 1918-19 Bristol Hippodrome watercolour |
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| 1921 In a Little Restaurant, Paris oil on canvas 81.3 x 100.5 cm |
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| 1921 Le Pont Neuf, Paris lithograph 43.5 x 55.2 cm ( image ) Tate, London |
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| 1923 La Danseuse à la Corde linocut on paper 39.1 x 30.5 cm Tate, London © The estate of Paule Vézelay |
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| 1923 The Bathers linocut on paper 26.7 x 23.5 cm Tate, London |
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| 1924 At the Cirque Medrano, Paris woodcut 19 x 15 cm |
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| 1925 Sir Eugene Goossens and Richard Tauber rehearsing at The Prince's Theatre, Bristol, 1925 oil on canvas 79.7 x 99 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| 1926 Dancing Woman pencil 26.6 x 20.3 cm |
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| 1927-29c Paule Vézelay ( Self-Portrait ) oil on canvas 65.1 x 54.3 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| 1928 Composition with Blue Vase and Table oil on canvas 73.7 x 93.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1928 Men in a Café oil on canvas 65 x 54.5 cm |
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| 1929 Archway oil on canvas 35.6 x 25.4 cm |
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| 1929 Flags oil on canvas 146.1 x 114.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1930 Curves and Circles oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm Tate, London © The estate of Paule Vézelay |
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| 1930 Drapeaux d'Hiver oil on canvas 96.5 x 146.1 cm |
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| 1930s Personnages Sur un Toit oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm |
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| 1931 Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe oil on canvas 81 x 117 cm |
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| 1931 Ochre, Grey and Olive Green Composition oil on canvas 50.2 x 65.4 cm |
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| 1932 Triangles and Tubes oil on canvas 92.1 x 73 cm Private Collection |
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| 1932c Composition ( with Blue Form ) oil on canvas 124.5 x 73.7 cm |
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| 1933 Composition pastel on canvas 73 x 91.4 cm Scottish Museum of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK |
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| 1933 Formes en Movement oil on canvas 40.6 x 33 cm |
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| 1933 Movement oil on canvas 38 x 61 cm |
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| 1933 Personnage Tenant une Fleur oil on canvas 41.3 x 33.6 cm Private Collection |
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| 1933 Tubes et rubans oil on canvas 24 x 40.5 cm |
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| 1933c Dancing Forms oil on canvas 21.7 x 18.1 cm |
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| 1934 Five Forms pencil 39.5 x 28 cm |
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| 1935 Abstract Composition oil on canvas 16.3 x 24 cm The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK |
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| 1935 Five Forms plaster 28 x 38 x 25 cm Tate, London © The estate of Paule Vézelay |
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| 1935 Forms on Grey oil on canvas 129.9 x 97.1 cm Tate, London |
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| 1935 Grey Forms on Grey oil on canvas 41.9 x 33 cm |
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| 1935 Grey Picture oil on canvas 92.1 x 59.7 cm Private Collection |
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| 1935 Little Black and White Picture oil on canvas 27.3 x 22.2 cm |