'He was a French artist enamoured with light and colour, movement and lightness'
An upcoming auction at Dreweatts will see works by Paul Lucien Maze up for sale. James Fisher delights in the artist's chronicling of mid-20th-century British life.
It is so nice to be delighted by a thing, especially if it is a small thing. For the artist Paul Lucien Maze, those small things were colours or feelings. ‘I was to grow up with the great expanse of sea before my eyes,’ he said. ‘I remember the first sensation of a gentle wave crawling up to my toes and ankles. Later on, as the summer seasons repeated themselves, I became more and more conscious of the reality of things.’
Maze would soon come face-to-face with the reality of things, good and bad. After a childhood growing up in Le Havre, learning the fundamentals of painting from Camille Pissarro and sketching on the beach with Raoul Dufy, he joined the British Army for the First World War. He was almost killed by the British for being a suspected spy, and it was in the trenches that Maze met and befriended Winston Churchill, and became his artistic mentor.
'Trooping the Colour'.
Despite his French birth, Maze was a dedicated Anglophile, who became one of the very best chroniclers of British life and society in the mid-20th century. Works depicting trooping the colour, Goodwood races, Henley Regatta and Cowes Regatta are among many that are considered quintessentially English. He recorded the funeral of George VI in 1952 and was selected as the Official Painter of Elizabeth II’s Coronation the following year.
Maze with his second wife, Jessie Lawrie, at their home in Treyford, West Sussex.
On Wednesday, March 11, works by Maze will be available for purchase via auction at Dreweatts in the forthcoming Modern and Contemporary show. The collection of works by Maze comes from the property of the late John Dru Montagu. ‘Dru Montagu, whose collection is being sold, was introduced to Paul Maze by the Earl of Sandwich, his grandfather,’ says Maze’s biographer and friend Anne Singer. ‘Paul Maze could be considered a chronicler of life in Great Britain in the 20th Century. Under his bony long fingers, the coloured chalks bring to life all the sporting activities which were a full part of British society’s sporting calendar: rowing at Henley, racing at Goodwood and Ascot, sailing at Royal Cowes, and all military parades.
‘He was a French artist enamoured with light and colour, movement and lightness.’ And his paintings are quite delightful.
'Before The Start, Goodwood'.
