RENÉ GRUAU (RENATO DE ZAVAGLI, 1910-2004) BLIZZAND. Circa 1960. 46 1/2x30 1/4 inches, 118x77 cm. Courbet, Paris. Condition A-: restoration along horizontal folds. Gruau was the most renowned and celebrated fashion illustrator in France after the war. His sparse compositions of languid, sophisticated models, delineated via bold lines and bright colors, ushered in a "New Look" in the late 1940s. His images are imbued with suggestion, even seduction, but his figures are always graceful, elegant and beautiful. The world of haute couture embraced him; "with lines as lean as his elongated models, a gash of bright lips or a wash of color, René Gruau summed up an era The elegant and aristocratic graphic artist . . . captured with his pen and brush the spirit of haute couture and the glory days of Parisian high fashion" (New York Times, April 13, 2004).
