French Fashion Illustrator René Gruau

The Parisian Grand Palais hosts an exhibition dedicated to the fragrance from Christian Dior - Miss Dior. 15 contemporary artists living in different countries and working in different techniques demonstrate their reverence for the fragrance. Each of them expresses its respect for the scent in its own way. And where did it all begin, who was the first artist to serve Miss Dior?

The first artist to share a piece of fame and profit with Miss Dior was the French fashion illustrator Rene Gruau. Let's find out a little more about him, his life is a perfect example.

René Gruau is the greatest illustrator of French fashion, a genius of laconicism, who created beautiful images of advertising companies for Dior, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and other fashion houses. René Gruau's fashion illustrations, not just drawings, but works of art, the height of elegance in fashion illustration and a real hymn to a woman.

Today, René Gruau's drawings are sold at auctions for £ 2,000, £ 5,000, £ 10,000 and sometimes more.

Biography and work of the illustrator Rene Gruau

His real name is very difficult for a Russian-speaking reader to remember, the artist's full name sounded like this - Renato de Zavagli Ricciardelli Caminate Count Della Caminate.

Gruau is the name of his mother, Marie. It was with this surname that the artist signed on thousands of sheets of drawings and sketches, elegantly executed in black ink and red gouache, next to the glamorous socialite and gentlemen in tuxedos that he painted, who advertised fashionable goods and a luxurious lifestyle. Rene Gruau's drawings breathed expensive neighborhoods and glamor, from his heroines in evening dresses and chic suits exuded success and wealth.

The artist was born into the family of an Italian aristocrat and a French countess, so his childhood was happy and carefree, but then his happiness was overshadowed by his parents' divorce. And when René Gruau was 15 years old, he and his mother came to Paris and immediately fell in love with this city. He was comfortable in an atmosphere where fashion houses set the tone. At twenty, he was already working as a fashion designer, and then decided to devote himself to fashion illustration, where he quickly achieved success.

L’Officiel magazine was the first to publish Rene Gruault's fashion drawings, and from that moment on he had no shortage of orders. But real success came to the artist after the proposal of the great Christian Dior, who entrusted him with the creation of fashion illustrations for the advertising campaign Miss Dior.

This contract brought the artist even more fame and significant income. From now on, Miss Dior perfume was symbolized by a swan with two pearl necklaces on a long neck and a fan in a hand covered with a glove ... Then an advertising poster for Rouge Baiser lipstick struck the light with an unforgettable smile of a woman in a mask ...

[media = https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v = tAr9hl6hqBU]

The history of Miss Dior on video

During that period, no photograph could be as symbolic as the drawings of Rene Gruau. His models were the most beautiful women in the world - Audrey Hepburn's velvet eyes looked impressively from the advertisement for the Blizzand waterproof raincoat. The artist played on associations and hints. A sharp-toed shoe, peering through the open door, hinted at a tight-fitting Dior suit, a black skirt on the red staircase meant Scandale underwear ... In his living drawings, frills flew up, folds trembled, hair fluttered ...

The girls created by Grueau wore fashionable gloves and wide-brimmed hats that cast a mysterious shadow over their eyes. These ladies were very good at outfits from Pierre Balmain, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Dior, Jacques Fata and other successful couturiers.

Gruau's style took shape in the harsh conditions dictated to the artist by the advertising illustration of the fashion world - rigor, simplicity, imaginative solution, so nature has no place in his compositions.You can even say that nature is completely absent in his drawings, there you will not see a single tree, not a single bush, not even a stream. Only flowers, but flowers are not simple, its flowers "bloom" only on fashionable fabrics.

In his works, the artist strives for graphic simplicity - the flexibility of the line, plus a certain set of colors used - white, red, black, golden yellow, sometimes green.

Due to the peculiarity of the drawings, where nature and the interior are almost completely absent, with the exception of some details (half-open door, back of an armchair, armrest, mirror shine), the artist was able to highlight a person or an advertised object.

Immersed in his favorite work, the artist worked in Paris until the moment when the hippie movement swept across Europe in the 1960s. The followers of the subculture rejected glamor, elegance and even beauty! At this moment, Rene Gruau decides to leave Paris and moves to Italy, where he starts working with the designer Valentino, known for his love of beauty and luxury.

In the 1970s and 1980s, René Gruau's fashion illustrations were at their peak again. The artist works fruitfully for famous fashion houses, jewelry and perfume companies. Along the way, Rene Gruau actively collaborates with the American publishing house and does not forget the glossy magazines - Vogue, L’Officiel, Marie Claire, International Textiles.

This is how, throughout his life, Rene Gruau was doing what he loved, creating beauty and glamor through his fashion illustrations, but in recent years, fashion has ceased to inspire him. Rather, he did not like the fashion of recent years. The artist was sad and said - "And why do women mutilate themselves like that?"

At this point, he found solace in painting and painted the castle of Laura Biagiotti, with whom he was friends for over thirty years.

Rene Gruau died shortly thereafter, at the age of 95. According to the artist's last wish, his death was announced only after the burial.

Fashion drawings by artist illustrator Rene Gruau