Rene Gruau
La Cigarette 1983
The beauty of Gruau’s work comes from his ability to play simply with line and form, offering movement and access to a screenshot of his imagination.
Unlike Barbier, Rene Gruau, born 1909 has been well documented and revered as one of the greatest illustrators to work with haute couture houses. Gruau had the ability to document the change in shapes being created by designers who were pushing a change to a new industry. This freedom can be seen throughout his work, the use of bold black lines and colour blocking has influenced artists since their original publication. As Drusilla Beyfus (2010) suggests writing in an article in The Telegraph Online, what sets Gruau apart from his peers is his ability to work successfully for commercial clients, creating some of his greatest artwork for campaigns, magazines and editorial.
Gruau had the ability to transform a look into a desired object, as Beyfus (2010) adds, long before the camera, Gruau was translating the looks for the public. As Pierre Perrone (2004) comments in an article published in the Independent upon his death, Gruau was cited as one of the most collectable artists of the last 50 years. Perrone (2004) adds that his first illustrations were published in Lidel, and Italian magazine, and after designing clothes in London during the early 1930’s, Gruau took up post in Paris and created work for magazines Femina, Silouettes and Marie-Claire. Perrone (2004) suggests that after working for International Textiles magazine Gruau had fully developed his own style. Gruau is quoted as saying
“Elegance is fluid and therefore difficult to define but it is made of desire and knowledge, of grace, refinement, perfection and distinction”.
Gruau’s work has been cited as being inspired by art nouveau and Japanese prints, on discussing his work Gruau added that he was self-taught, and looked to other artists to develop his own techniques (Perrone, 2004). Beyfus (2010) adds that the cultural air of Japonism and aspects of kabuki theatre influenced his work, with a strong emphasis on make-up and masks.
The relevance and importance of Gruau’s work can be seen through not only the large retrospective exhibition held in his honour Dior Illustrated: Rene Gruau’s Line of Beauty held at Somerset House in November 2011, or the Creative Director at the time John Galliano using the drawings to design his couture collection, but also by the works of contemporary illustrators such as David Downton, which are an aspect of modern culture and can be seen adorning the walls of M&S stores throughout the UK (Beyfus, 2011).
Discussing his choice to create a couture collection based on Gruau’s work, Galliano stated that he attempted to recreate the light and shadow of the drawings with many layers of fabric, coloured from red to black. He said “ she will look like an illustration that has come to life”. On discussing Gruau’s importance further Galliano added that during the exhibition opening he asked the younger members of staff to attend stating “ Its taking their noses out of these f***ing fashion magazines and getting to the roots of it. Finding key to inspiration”.
As part of the exhibition a series of illustrators including Jasper Goodall were invited to experiment recreating Gruau
from these images it can clearly be seen the breadth of artists finding inspiration from Gruau’s work.
Reference for original image
http://www.renegruau.com/wp-content/gallery/kiss/cigarette.gif
Source References:
Turner, Janice, The Times, 19/02/2011, ‘Who am I today?…
Beyfus, Drusilla,The Daily Telegraph, 2010, The draw of Dior
Perrone, Pierre, The Independent, 2004, Gruau Obituary
http://dontpaniconline.com/magazine/festivals/dior-illustrated-rene-gruau-and-the-line-of-beauty
http://blog.artsthread.com/2010/11/dior-illustrated-rene-gruau-and-the-line-of-beauty/#!prettyPhoto%5BGallery%5D/3/
http://houseofretro.com/index.php/2013/03/19/george-barbier-the-master-of-art-deco/
http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/barbier.htm
http://www.luxurytraveler.com/The_birth_of_art_deco.html
http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/selections/paris/barbier1072.html
http://sarahfmuskevitsch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/importance-of-street-style-photography.html
georgesandrene 
