René Gruau

René Gruau (actually Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate ; born February 4, 1909 in Rimini , † March 31, 2004 in Rome ) was an Italian-born fashion illustrator who artistically accompanied the rise of French fashion after the Second World War. With his work as a fashion illustrator, he reached the peak of his work at the end of the 1950s and gained worldwide fame. He drew for Dior , Givenchy and Balenciaga, among others . Although he had a particularly close relationship with Christian Dior , for whom he also designed advertising posters.

Life

Gruau was born Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate in Rimini on February 4, 1909. His father, Alessandro Zavagli, comes from the Italian aristocracy, his mother, Maria Gruau, comes from the Parisian aristocracy. The parents separated when René Gruau was a little boy. He stayed with his mother. Some time after the split, they settled in Milan . Gruau described his mother as very elegant and interested in fashion. Together they regularly visited the fashion houses in Milan. Without the financial donations from Alessandro Zavagli, René and his mother could not afford the lavish lifestyle. Fourteen-year-old René worked as a fashion illustrator for a magazine to earn money. During this time he took on the name under which he later became famous: René Gruau. His trademark, the little star as a signature, also came from this first creative period.

Gruau's signature

At the age of 20 (late 1920s) he left Italy and moved to Paris . Paris left Gruau during the German occupation for Cannes . Gruau spent his twilight years in Rome , where he died on March 31, 2004. He had previously stipulated in his will that his death should be kept secret for a month. He wanted to avoid a stir.

plant

The first works of the then 18-year-old for Italian magazines attracted attention, so that after a few years his illustrations also appeared in France . Gruau was self-taught and never attended a drawing school in his life. His work shows influences from Italian fashion illustrators of the early 20th century, such as Leonetto Capiello and Marcello Dudovich. Since the late 1960s, he was increasingly inspired by Japanese calligraphy.

In the late 1920s he moved to Paris. Although there were many fashion illustrators in Paris in the early 1930s, Gruau quickly got orders from leading fashion magazines such as Vogue , Marie Claire or Elle . Gruau designed the illustrations for the bi-weekly fashion pages of the French daily Le Figaro . It was at this time that cooperation with the famous fashion designers began. He has drawn collections for Chanel , Piguet , Schiaparelli and Balenciaga . He fled from the German occupiers to Cannes and continued to work from there. After the liberation of Paris, he returned there. In the following years the rebuilding of the French fashion industry began, which Gruau accompanied artistically. He worked particularly closely with Christian Dior, who was largely responsible for the recovery of the Parisian fashion houses. The new look and the associated new image of women became characteristic of Dior's work, as well as of Gruau's illustrations. Gruau's drawings are particularly characterized by their elegance and lightness, which correspond to the attributes of the New Look. He cleverly composed the various picture elements - especially the models - so that they do not appear static, but lively and modern. He reduced backgrounds to monochrome surfaces in order to bring the figures and their clothing to the fore. The lines of the drawings are powerful and outline the elegant silhouettes of the figures. This was unprecedented in its time.

After the great success of the 1947 collection, Christian Dior wanted to launch the Miss Dior perfume . He commissioned Gruau to develop a poster campaign for the launch and gave him a free hand.

Gruau developed innovative posters: The advertised product, the bottle, was not shown on any of the posters, they only showed simple, elegant drawings, for example drawings of a swan or a fan.

With Dior's death in October 1957, Gruau not only lost his sponsor and a source of his artistic work, but also a friend. They had been close friends since they first met in 1936. For Gruau, Dior's death also meant the gradual departure from fashion illustration. The fashion photography replaced increasingly the illustrative presentation of new collections. He turned increasingly to advertising illustration, including for Rouge Baiser (1948 and 1950), Le Bas Scandal (1950) and Ortalion (1957). It gave him greater freedom and thus new scope for his ideas.

The advertising campaign for the lipstick manufacturer Rouge Baiser gained particular prominence. With clear and precise lines and only three colors (black, white and red), Gruau masterfully worked out the effect of the red lipstick. These works were picked up in 2011 in the collection of John Galliano for the House of Dior and became a style-defining element of his women's collection - as an homage to Gruau.

With the beginning of the changed image of women with the advent of the 68 generation and the loss of importance of haute couture , Gruau lost access to the zeitgeist. He distanced himself from the fashion of prêt-à-porter .

He designed theatrical costumes in the 1970s and continued to draw fashion posters and covers for fashion magazines. He remained active into old age, but without being able to come close to his previous importance and successes.

literature

• Joëlle Chariau, Ulf Poschardt: Rene Gruau: A Retrospective. Schirmer / Moselle; Edition N.-A. Munich 2004.
• Silvie Nissen, Vincent Leret: Le premier siècle de René Gruau . Thalia Edition, 2009
• Joëlle Chariau, Colin McDowell, Holly Brubach: Images of fashion: masterpieces of fashion drawing from 100 years . Prestel Verlag Munich 2011.

Web links

• Gruau: The fashion maker. Arte.
• René Gruau Site officiel.
• Artnet René Gruau
• "René Gruau", TV documentary directed by Wolfgang Kramer for ARTE and NDR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ René Gruau: The modem painter - The ARTE magazine - de - ARTE ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ http://www.artnet.de/K%C3%BCnstler/ren%C3%A9-gruau/
4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ http://www.artnet.de/K%C3%BCnstler/ren%C3%A9-gruau/
8. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/rene-gruau