Nicolas de Staël, a French painter of Russian origin, is a major artist in the history of 20th century art.

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He joined the Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1933, before traveling around Europe to discover the works of Cézanne, matisse and Braque. He was fascinated by the beauty of the Spanish and Italian landscapes but finally settled in Paris in 1938, where he took courses at the Académie Fernand Léger. Mobilized in 1940, Nicolas de Staël moved to Nice, where he met artists such as Vieira da Silva, Arp And the Delaunay. The painter gradually abandoned landscape for portraits and established a deep friendship with Georges Braque, who was full of praise for “the Prince”.

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The years 1945-1950 were marked by a “dark” production that soon gave way to an exaltation of color. His painting, in constant evolution, is characterized by thick superimposed layers and a play of materials ranging from impasto with a knife to a more fluid paint. Driven by a desire for perfection and a passionate relationship with creation, de Staël went so far as to destroy many of his paintings.

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In 1956, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris organized a major retrospective of the artist's work, followed by that of the Grand Palais in 1981, that of the Pompidou Center in 2003 and that of the Gianadda Foundation (Martigny) in 2010.