Robert-Louis Antral (1895 - 1939)

Robert Louis Antral was born on 13 July 1895 in Châlons-en-Champagne. He entered the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1912, and was admitted to the studio of the painter Fernand Cormon (1845-1924), who was also the master of Henri Matisse, Chaïm Soutine, Adam Styka, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec among others.
The First World War sent him to the trenches where he was wounded, but he resumed his career as a painter and watercolourist. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne. He likes to paint the banks of the Marne in his native region, but also travels a lot. He produced watercolours of seascapes, harbour views, genre scenes with square strokes without many curves, as well as still lifes and bouquets of flowers. He excelled in rendering foggy atmospheres, dark and rainy twilights. He participated in the illustration of many books, including À Huis-Clos by Pierre Mac-Orlan, La Boîte à pêche by Maurice Genevoix, Le Chant du Toukan, by Henry de Montfreid. He did not disdain the technique of etching either.
He died in Paris at the age of 43, struck down by a kidney attack, on 9 June 1939.