Misplaced Pages

Diane Esmond (16 April 1910 - 27 May 1981) was a French painter whose main works were in the tradition of Post-Impressionism. She worked in or near Paris for the major part of her artistic career. Before World War II, she exhibited her figural paintings (circus and café scenes) in group shows in Paris. She spent the war years in New York, returning to Paris in the mid-1950s and extending her subject matter to include still lifes, cityscapes, and landscapes that were shown in solo exhibitions in New York and various European cities. At the culmination of her career her work evolved toward the abstract evocation of tropical forests. She also designed sets and costumes for theatrical productions.

Life

The French artist Diane Esmond was born in London on 16 April 1910 and raised in Paris. Her parents were Edward Esmond (né Ezra), a native of British India descended from David Joseph Ezra, and Valentine née Deutsch de la Meurthe, who was French.  She studied in the 1930s with the French artist Édouard Georges Mac-Avoy, and participated in group exhibitions in Paris in those years. Her paintings from that period were seized in 1941 by Nazi occupying forces and removed to the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.  Most of the seized works are listed (in the national archives of Germany at Koblenz) as destroyed, although a few were rescued from a German train in 1944, after the liberation of Paris.

Diane Esmond went through a period of exile in the United States between 1940 and the mid-1950s. She then returned to France, divorcing her husband Dr. Robert Wallis, whom she had married in 1937 and with whom she had two sons. She lived in or near Paris for the rest of her life (marrying the cartoonist Jean Don in 1962), but made working trips to Italy, southern France, and the Caribbean.

Diane Esmond died in Paris on 27 May 1981.

Work

Diane Esmond worked in the tradition of French impressionist and post-impressionist painters, including Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Bonnard, and Braque. Her major subjects were landscapes and still lifes, although her subject matter extended also to scenes of barges on the Seine and of workingmen in cafés. In the 1950s her painting took a turn toward the dramatic, becoming more expressive and laying a greater emphasis on color. Her landscapes (oils, black-and-white ink drawings, and gouaches) were inspired by the French Provençal countryside and by the luxuriant vegetation of Caribbean tropical forests. At the culmination of her artistic career, she used luminous colors in semi-abstract compositions.

Diane Esmond also designed sets and costumes for performances of classic French theater, in collaboration with directors/actors Jean-Louis Barrault, Madeleine Renaud, and Marie Bell. In 1963 she designed the costumes and stage sets for a performance on Broadway of Jean Racine’s Bérénice, performed by the Marie Bell Company.

The group exhibitions in which she participated in Paris in the 1930s included the Salon of French Artists in 1936, the Salon d’Automne in 1935 and the Salon Indépendant National in 1938. From 1950 to 1978 she had solo showings of her paintings in Geneva, New York, Paris, and London, in galleries such as Carstairs, Chardin, Hammer, Knoedler, and Wildenstein.

Bibliography and reviews of exhibitions

• Elks, Sonia, “National Trust’s Stately Home Clandon Park Gutted by Fire,” The London Times, April 30, 2015
• Gaunt, William, “Diane Esmond at the Wildenstein,” The Times, July 27, 1978, p. 13.
• Laprade, Jacques de, “Le Salon national indépendent,” Beaux-arts, April 29, 1938: 4.
• Lecuyer, Raymond, “Le Salon national indépendant a ouvert ses portes,” Le Figaro, April 25, 1938: 2.
• P.B., “Diane Esmond,” Art Digest, March 15, 1953, Vol. 27:20
• Poulin, Gaston, “Le Salon: la peinture de la Société des Artistes Français,” Comedia, April 30, 1935: 1.
• Preston, Stuart, "Chiefly Modern: American Contemporaries, the Tried and True,” New York Times, March 8, 1953, Section X, p. 10.
• “Questions aux exposants du salon d’automne,” L’Amour de l’art, 1936: 373–4.
• "Le Salon des artistes français,"Beaux-Arts (Paris), May 1, 1936: 8.
• "Le Salon d'automne," Beaux-Arts (Paris), Nov. 1, 1935: 7.
• “Le Salon des Tuileries,” Beaux-Arts, May 22, 1936: 5.
• Roger-Marx, Claude, “Le Salon d’automne,” Le Jour, Oct. 31, 1935: 2.
• R.D. "Autour des cimaises," L’Aube (Paris), November 29, 1950: 2
• R.V., “Reviews and Previews: Diane Esmond," Art News, March 1953, Vol. 52: 39.
• R.V., “Diane Esmond,” Art News, March 1956, Vol. 55:64.
• Saradin, Edouard, “Le Salon d’automne,” Journal des Débats, Nov. 17, 1935: 4
• Shepard, Richard, “Theater,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1963: 46
• Wright, Barbara, “London Reviews,” Arts Review, Vol 30 No. 12,  June 1978: 311.

Encyclopedia entries

• Benezit, "Diane Esmond," in Dictionary of Artists (Paris: Gründ, 2006), Vol. 5, p. 293.
• Bénézit, Emmanuel,  "Diane Esmond," in Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d'écrivains spécialistes franc̦ais et étrangers, new ed. Jacques Busse (Paris: Gründ, 1999), Vol. 5, p. 182.

Theater records at the French National Archives

• Bérénice / directed by André Barsacq ; tragedy in 5 acts by Jean Racine ; sets and costumes by Diane Esmond ; interpreted by the Marie Bell acting company; performed in Paris at the Théâtre du Gymnase, October 1, 1963. Notice n°  FRBNF39466327.
• Les Choutes / directed by Jean Wall ; sets by Diane Esmond; performed in Paris at the Théâtre des nouveautés, 1959. Notice  n° FRBNF14678349; Identifier: ark:/12148/cb146783499

Paintings confiscated by the Nazis during WWII

The online database of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce lists 57 items stolen from the Esmond house in Paris that were kept at the Jeu de Paume Nazi sorting house. Of these, several are paintings by Diane Esmond slated for destruction, but some of these are illustrated with photographs. A few were recovered but the majority remain missing. The black & white photographs taken in the 1940s can be viewed on the "ERR project" website:

• Deprez, Guillaume, “Rose Valland: Art Historian Turned Spy to Save Art from Nazis,” The Collector, June 14, 2020.
• Heuss, Anja, Kunst und Kulturgutraub: eine vergleichende Studie zur Besatzungspolitik der Nationalsozialisten in Frankreich und in der Sowjetunion (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 2000), p. 122.
• Bundesarchiv, B323/853, in Koblenz, Germany: Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume
• Masurovsky, Marc, “What happened to the collection of Edouard Esmond?”

References

1. ^ Bénézit, Emmanuel (1999). Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d'écrivains spécialistes franc̦ais et étrangers (in French). Paris: Gründ. pp. Vol. 5, p. 182. ISBN 270003015X.
2. Heuss, Anja (2000). Kunst und Kulturgutraub: eine vergleichende Studie zur Besatzungspolitik der Nationalsozialisten in Frankreich und in der Sowjetunion (in German). Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter. p. 122. ISBN 3825309940.
3. ^ anon (May 10, 2022). "Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume; Diane Esmond". Bundesarchiv, B323/853 (Koblenz, Germany). Retrieved May 10, 2022.
4. ^ Masurovsky, Marc (May 10, 2022). ""What happened to the collection of Edouard Esmond?"". Retrieved May 10, 2022.
5. Gaunt, William (July 27, 1978). "Diane Esmond at the Wildenstein". Times of London. p. 13.
6. Preston, Stuart (March 8, 1953). "Chiefly Modern: American Contemporaries, the Tried and True". New York Times. pp. Section X, page 10.
7. Wright, Barbara (1978). "London Reviews". Arts Review. 30 (2): 311.
8. Shepard, Richard (October 30, 1963). "Theater". New York Times. p. 46.
9. Poulin, Gaston (April 30, 1935). "Le Salon: la peinture de la Société des Artists Français". Comedia. p. 1.
10. Saradin, Edouard (November 17, 1935). "Le Salon d'automne". Journal des Débats. p. 4.
11. Lecuyer, Raymond (April 25, 1938). "Le Salon national indépendant a ouvert ses portes". Le Figaro. p. 2.
12. B., P. (March 15, 1953). "Diane Esmond". Art Digest. 27: 20.
13. D., R. (November 29, 1950). "Autour des cimaises". L'Aube. p. 2.
14. V., R. (March 1953). "Diane Esmond". Art News. 55: 64.
15. Gaunt, William (July 17, 1978). "Diane Esmond at the Wildenstein". The Times (London). p. 13.
16. Elks, Sonia (2023-07-31). "National Trust's Clandon Park stately home gutted by fire". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
17. "Bérénice [Spectacle] / mise en scène de André Barsacq ; tragédie en 5 actes, en vers de Jean Racine ; décors et costumes de Diane Esmond ; spectacle interprété par Compagnie Marie Bell" (in French). BnF. 1963. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
18. Esmond, Diane forme internationale (in French). BnF. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
19. Deprez, Guillaume (14 June 2020). "Rose Valland: Art Historian Turned Spy To Save Art From Nazis". The Collector. Retrieved 19 May 2022.

External links

• Artist's Website
• Talk, by Victor Wallis (artist's son), 26 November 2021

• 1910 births
• 1981 deaths
• Painters from London
• Painters from Paris
• 20th-century French painters
• 20th-century French women artists
• French costume designers
• French Post-impressionist painters
• French Impressionist painters