Nicolas de Staël

Nicolas De Staël left behind a body of work indicating a remarkable and unique painterly vision. As part of the second great generation of European abstract artists, he matured in post-1945 Paris alongside the Tachiste painters. De Staël, more inclined toward figurative art than many of his contemporaries and meticulous in his approach to composition, created a mesmerizing space between representational and non-representational art.

Biography of Nicolas De Staël

Nikolai Vladimirovich Staël von Holstein was born in St Petersburg in 1914. His father, a general of noble descent, served as the governor of the Fortress of St Peter and St Paul in the city. Despite Russia's entry into the First World War, Nikolai enjoyed a comfortable life during his early years. However, following the revolution of 1917, the family was compelled to flee to Poland, where they settled in 1919. 

Sadly, both parents passed away within a year of each other, in 1921 and 1922, leaving Staël and his two sisters to move to Brussels to live with a Russian family, following a common pattern of Russian emigration to the Francophone world. During this period, he began to be known as Nicolas de Staël.

In Belgium, de Staël pursued interior design and architecture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts and the Academie de St Gilles, respectively. While little is documented about de Staël's early education, and few of his pre-Second World War paintings have survived, it is evident that by 1936 he was set on becoming an artist. This period was pivotal for him, coinciding with his travels around Europe and North Africa. In Morocco in 1937, he met his first wife, the painter Jeannie Guillou.

In 1937, de Staël foresaw in a letter to his friend, the poet René Char, that his life "will be a continual voyage on an uncertain sea." This statement appears prophetic when considering the tumultuous events that would define the middle years of his life: a stint in the military, the loss of his first wife shortly after the Second World War, and the challenging development of his distinctive style.

De Staël's journey toward establishing this style began after a brief period in Nice in 1941, following two years of service with the French Foreign Legion. Initially, he intended to reunite with his wife in Nice after completing his military duty, but during his stay in the city, he encountered and drew inspiration from an older generation of modern artists who had crafted their unique versions of abstraction. Among these influences were Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Jean Arp, Henri Goetz, and Alberto Magnelli.

While de Staël's surviving pieces from the subsequent years might not exhibit the vibrancy of artists like Magnelli or the Delauneys, they served as a challenge for him to deeply question the foundations of his work and gravitate toward a more radical form of abstraction. Despite this evolution, de Staël's palette remained somber and subdued. It is thus not surprising that he developed a close friendship with the Cubist painter Georges Braque, renowned for his use of brown and grey tones. Their acquaintance began when de Staël rented a studio in Paris near Braque's. Interestingly, after the war, de Staël worked in the studio of Braque's Cubist contemporary, the artist with a much brighter palette, Fernand Léger.

The post-war years marked a period of consolidation for de Staël. In 1949, one of his pieces was acquired by the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and his inaugural solo exhibition in the United States took place in 1950. The ascendancy and dominance of Abstract Expressionism in the USA played a role in de Staël's burgeoning success in the early 1950s. His painting style found stability alongside his personal life, and he lived contentedly in Paris with his second wife Françoise Chapouton, whom he had married shortly after the death of his first wife in 1946. 

During this era, de Staël became associated with Tachisme, a movement of Francophone painters working in Paris after the Second World War. Tachisme was characterized by a non-geometric, often improvisatory style, viewed as the European counterpart to Abstract Expressionism.

The tone of de Staël's mature work could be traced back to a single, perhaps unexpected event: his attendance at a football match between France and Sweden at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 26 March 1952. Despite France's loss by one goal to nil, this outcome held little significance for de Staël. He recounted the experience with fervent excitement in his letters of that time, vividly describing the glow of the floodlights and the lush green of the pitch.

Although de Staël had intermittently produced works in subdued tones of grey, black, and blue since 1950, his palette notably lightened from around this period. However, only two years later, at the match, this shift in his work solidified. From then on, he predominantly worked in brilliant colors, creating series such as "Les Footballeurs" and "Le Parc des Princes" directly inspired by the match.

Around this juncture, de Staël encountered Pablo Picasso, who reportedly exclaimed, "prenez-moi dans vos bras" ("Take me in your arms!"). De Staël was a visually striking figure, and Picasso's admiration, not only for his appearance but also for his artistic talent, illustrated the impressive stature de Staël had attained by this stage of his life.

Between August 1953 and October 1954, de Staël retreated to Provence in southeastern France, seeking solace from mental health struggles and creating a remarkable and original body of work inspired by the landscape and atmosphere around him. He achieved a heightened technical prowess during this penultimate phase, producing paintings that are the most distinctive and recognizable of his career.

This burst of creativity was sparked by a transformative trip to Italy with family and friends in the summer of 1953, where they visited Naples, Pompeii, and Sicily. The journey resulted in a series of vibrant, brilliantly colored paintings in hues of orange, red, green, and yellow, capturing the radiant light and sun-soaked architecture. 

In 1954, de Staël relocated to the small town of Antibes in Provence, choosing to live separately from his wife and children, who resided in Ménerbes nearby. The reasons for this distance from his family are not entirely clear. However, in a tribute piece written in 1956 by his friend, the art historian Douglas Cooper, de Staël was depicted as possessing an ascetic spirit. Even as his success afforded him a comfortable lifestyle, he remained singularly devoted to his work with a monk-like intensity.

In March 1955, despite growing critical acclaim and considerable commercial success, de Staël tragically took his own life by jumping from the terrace of his apartment block in Antibes. The reasons for de Staël's tragic decision to take his own life have been speculated upon, including acute depression, insomnia, a failed romance, and the pressure that accompanied his success. It's been reported that his suicide followed an unsuccessful meeting with an art critic.