Henri Jean Pontoy Etching and aquatint in color, signed - "In a Cathedral" c1930.

Henri Jean Pontoy (French 1888-1968)- "In a Cathedral"- etching and aquatint in color, signed and block signed

Henri Pontoy (1888/1968) entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris and exhibited his engravings at the Salon des Artistes Français, his paintings at the Salon d'Automne as well than at the Salon of Algerian Orientalist Artists. In 1926, he was awarded a travel grant which enabled him to travel to North Africa, particularly Tunisia where he became a member of the Salon Tunisien the same year, then went to Morocco and West Africa. He lived for several years around 1930 in Ouarzazate where he met the painter Jacques Majorelle. He became professor of arts and letters at the Moulay Idriss high school in Fèz. He won the 1933 Grand Prix of the City of Algiers. He left in 1947 with Majorelle, in Africa. He won the Cameroon Prize in 1951. His fresh, airy palette of warm colors, both in oils and in watercolors, has always met with great success. He is one of the last French representatives of Orientalism reaching its peak in the interwar period. Exhibitions • Oran, January 1925 • Algiers and Tunis ,: 1926 • Autumn Salon in Algiers, 1926 • Algiers, 1933, Salon of Algerian Orientalist artists • Algiers, December 1938, Salon of the Artistic Union of North Africa • Algiers, January 1947, mirrored art exhibition Bibliography • Bénézit Dictionary • Alfred Rousse, 28th Salon of Algerian Orientalist Artists, 1927. • Stéphane Richemond, Les Salons des Artistes Coloniaux, Éditions de l'Amateur, 2003 • Gérald Schurr and Pierre Cabanne, Dictionary of the small masters of painting, Éditions de l'Amateur, 2003. • Elisabeth Cazenave. The artists of Algeria, dictionary of painters, sculptors, engravers 1830-1962