Renée Lefèvre

Renée Lefèvre (São Paulo SP 1910 - idem 1996)

Renée Lefèvre was an illustrator, painter and draftswoman. She studied drawing with the painter Pedro Alexandrino and was a member of the Família Artística Paulista (FAP). She took part in several editions of the Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [São Paulo Fine Arts Salon] between 1934 and 1940. In the 1940s, she served as secretary of the Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo [São Paulo Visual Artists Union], attended the Académie Julian and the Académie de La Grande Chaumière in Paris, and took part in the 46th, 47th and 50th editions of the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes [National Salon of Fine Arts] – Modern Division. She exhibited at the 1st and 2nd editions of the São Paulo International Biennial, in 1951 and 1953. In 1969, she launched the book Minas: Cidades Barrocas [Minas: Baroque Towns] at Galeria Azulão, for which she received the Prêmio Jabuti in the Best Illustrations category.

As an illustrator, she also contributed to the publications São Paulo, Sua Arquitetura: Colônia e Império [São Paulo, Its Architecture: Colony and Empire], with texts by Carlos Lemos (1974); Maranhão: São Luiz e Alcântara, with texts by Odylo Costa Filho (1971); and A Bahia, do Encanto ao Choro [Bahia, from Enchantment to Lament], with texts by Fernando Luiz da Fonseca (1977).

Critiques

"Renée Lefèvre likes to paint and draw landscapes, small country towns, squares, streets, churches, old mansions. Sometimes she is drawn to regional scenes with human figures. She rarely paints still lifes. She deliberately avoids panoramic compositions. In general, she is devoted to simple pictorial transpositions of fragments of Brazilian reality that is now historical. Undoubtedly, these views of old Brazil undergo a process of personal affection, a lyrical, poetic rendering, in which the artist reveals the hidden charms of resurrected forms of Baroque architecture, forms so Brazilian, so graceful, so captivating, already so forgotten, yet still present and alive (...) It will be difficult to classify her pictures, painted in a range of luminous, muted colors, and these subtle, sensitive drawings with their airy calligraphy, within the recognized currents of present-day painting. They seem to come from another era, as indeed do these portions of colonial Brazil that are the sources of her inspiration".
Geraldo Ferraz
LOUZADA, Júlio. Artes plásticas: seu mercado, seus leilões. São Paulo: J. Louzada, 1984-.

Solo Exhibitions

1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo
1959 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Antigonovo
1962 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Casa do Artista Plástico
1964 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Casa do Artista Plástico
1968 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Azulão
1969 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Azulão
1971 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Azulão
1974 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1982 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sociarte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sociarte

Group Exhibitions

1934 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Rua 11 de Agosto
1935 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1935 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1936 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - honorable mention
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - bronze medal
1938 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Salão de Maio, at Esplanada Hotel de São Paulo
1939 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Show with Franco Cenni
1939 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, at Automóvel Clube
1939 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Salão de Maio, at Galeria Itá
1939 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - small silver medal
1940 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Portuguese Centenary Celebrations, at Pavilhão do Brasil - Arte Contemporânea Brasileira [Contemporary Brazilian Art]
1940 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Salon of the Institute of Fine Arts of Rio Grande do Sul
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, at Palace Hotel
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 46th National Salon of Fine Arts - Modern Division, at Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - honorable mention
1940 - São Paulo SP - 6th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1940 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Salão de Arte Almeida Júnior da Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo
1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 47th National Salon of Fine Arts - Modern Division, at Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1942 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1943 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Salon of Fine Arts, at Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
1944 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian-North American Modern Painting Exhibition, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1945 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1946 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Inter-American Exhibition
1947 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1948 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1949 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at Museu de Arte Moderna
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão dos Estados
1955 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Landscape from 1900 to the Present Day, at Museu de Arte Moderna
1960 - São Paulo SP - Women's Contribution to the Visual Arts in Brazil, at Museu de Arte Moderna
1967 - São Paulo SP - A Família Artística Paulista: Trinta Anos Depois [The Família Artística Paulista: Thirty Years Later], at Auditório Itália
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: of the Família Artística Paulista, the Salão de Maio and the São Paulo Visual Artists Union, at Museu Lasar Segall
1980 - São Paulo SP - Três Pioneiros do Tempo dos Salões: Domingos Toledo Piza, Renée Lefèvre e Hugo Adami [Three Pioneers from the Age of the Salons: Domingos Toledo Piza, Renée Lefèvre and Hugo Adami], at Museu Lasar Segall
1982 - São Paulo SP - Seascapes and Riverscapes, at Museu Lasar Segall

Posthumous Exhibitions

1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seascapes in Major São Paulo Collections, at Museu Naval e Oceanográfico. Serviço de Documentação da Marinha
1998 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Iconography in Private Collections, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: From the Week of '22 to Sérgio Milliet's Art Section, at Centro Cultural São Paulo
2003 - São Paulo SP - Painters of the São Paulo Coast, at Sociarte
2004 - São Paulo SP - Tudo é Desenho [Everything Is Drawing], at Centro Cultural São Paulo
2004 - São Paulo SP - Women Painters, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2006 - São Paulo SP - O Brasil de Renée Lefèvre [Renée Lefèvre's Brazil], at Pinacoteca do Estado
2008 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo de Renée Lefèvre [Renée Lefèvre's São Paulo], at Espaço Cultural BM&F

Source: Itaú Cultural