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Biography
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In
1930 he is back in Zurich for a few months and
organizes at the Actuarius gallery an exhitibition of the works he
had left behind with various friends. The interest shown in this
exhibition confirms his decision to dedicate his life to painting, and to
settle down in this unequalled artistic centre which is the Paris of
those days. He
moves to a small studio Place de la Sorbonne where he lives until he gets
married in 1935. He goes to the Free Academies, ‘Atelier Julian’ and
‘Grande Chaumière’ Every evening in Montparnasse on the corner of
Vavin, he meets up with painters and sculptors from all parts of the world :
Russian, Polish, and also Italian… There he meets Benn, Mane-Katz. who
eventually become his close friends. He draws characters in the Cafes :
the Dome, the Select
and the Coupole. Whenever
he has time, he wanders through Paris and its suburbs in search of new
themes. Paris is a source of bewilderment. He must also make a living to
meet his daily needs, and starts to work for an advertising agency. In
1932 Antonio Aniante, a political journalist and writer, who owns a
gallery/bookshop on rue Vavin, chooses him to represent the hopes of the
« new Europe » along with other artists who are also hardly
known such as Filippo de Pisis, Giorgio de Chinco, Oskar Kokoschka or
Kostia Terechkovitch. This
same year, he is introduced by an old friend to a very beautiful young
lady , just emigrated from Russia like him, two years older than him :
Lisa Samsovici. She comes from a good middle-class family in Kishenev, a
Russian town which became Rumanian in 1918. He is filled with admiration
by this very great beauty and natural elegance, and courts her assiduously
for 3 years before marrying her on June 29, 1935. I Following
Normandy, Raphael Pricert discovers Provence and Corsica. His palette,
quite somber until then, suddently brightens up and now includes strong
reds. In
1935 Raphael Pricert marries Lisa Samsovici and the newly married couple
moves to 23
rue Besnard – Paris 14, to a comfortable and bright one-bedroom
apartment on the 4th floor, consisting of a large entrance
hall, a dressing room He uses
one of the rooms as his studio while the dressing room is used to store
his works. He now starts painting very large formats and stores the
smaller paintings in the kitchen. He
wins the friendship and esteem of the owner of a large advertising agency
on Quai d’Orsay : Mr. Faivret for whom he designs mock-ups and
advertising bill-boards, tickets for the National Lottery, and thus
manages to provide for the needs of his couple while pursuing his artistic
life in Montparnasse. In the evenings he and his wife meet up with their
friends at the Select, the Dome
of the Coupole. They talk about their exhibitions, their techniques and
major artistic theories, their suppliers, their projects. When they stay
home, their friends drop in for impromptu meals. Their home is welcoming
and open. Drawing
and painting are the center of their life. Paris is an endless source of
inspiration. His wife Lisa often poses for him. She also inspired him his
still-lives. With the good weather, they go out to Bougival and he brings
back drawings reflecting their happiness. In the summer they travel around
the South of France and Corsica with palette and easel. There, they
join up with his wife’s family
every year. From
this time on, the art critic of the Nouvelles
Litteraires, Maximilien Gauthier states about him « His colours
are clearer, the brightness is softer and his views on things looks more
optimistic ».
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