Rene Graua, Illustrator extraordinaire literally made my heart race the first time I saw his work in the Negresco in Nice.
Post WW2 two men defined French fashion, Christian Dior and his illustrator Rene Gruau, The New Look was born.
Gruau illustrated the work of Balmain, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, and Lanvin. Turning the spirit of their creations into by the 1950’s and 60’s their brand images.
Advertising beckoned such as this ad for Air France.
This for Jean Renoir’s film CanCan.
This for the French Riveria.
Glamorous movie star images.
Why would anyone want to buy stocks and shares when you could buy these?
It is hard to pick favourites I love them all!
I feel completely overcome by the shockingly beautiful lines and spareness of composition. He was a genius.
There were exhibitions at the Paris Musée du Costume in 1989 and Musée de la Publicité in 1999. His birthplace, Rimini on the Italian Riviera, has a permanent collection in its city museum. The Fabulous Rene Gruau 1909-2004.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Fabulous photos. Nice, provocative post,
Very interesting Blog. Hope it will always be alive!
Hi Gabrielle! Long time no talk!
I absolutely love these illustrations. i can always count on you to introduce me to more vintage fashion eye candy. These are stunning.
Hi,
The fashion illustrations are really impressive.Rene has done superb job to give emotions to these paintings.
Yeah, some concepts are really interesting. I like the expressiveness in those fashion illustrations.