Charles Levier (French, 1920-2003) Two Women with European Street Scene La Terasse du Restaurant Oil on Canvas Hand signed lower left Dimensions: Frame size: 51 in. x 40.5 in. Canvas 40 X 30 Depicting women (possibly Asian) on a Paris street corner with busy street scene behind them, in a giltwood frame. Charles Levier (1920-2004) He was born in 1920 of a French father and American mother in Corsica. He held a fascination with color and form that led him, at age seventeen, to the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs for private studies. World War II came along and Levier served in the French Army in North Africa later becoming Liaison Officer with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. He worked in a Post Impressionist style with Abstract Cubist influences. He also painted under the pseudonym Maurice Verrier. Coming to America, to live, he divided his time between the USA and France, preparing for his first one-man show, which took place at the Galerie Constantine, in Lyons in 1949, followed by an American debut in Los Angeles in 1950. The year 1955 found him exhibiting at the Galeries de Colisee in Paris and then returning to America where an old friend, Dr. Lilienfeld of Van-Diemen, Lilienfeld Gallery in New York City began to present his paintings. Dr. Lilienfeld taste was widely respected for his scholarship. He had helped to compile and write biographies for the definitive reference work in German, Thieme-Becker. He is part of the mid century Ecole de Paris along with Bernard Lorjou, Andre Hambourg, Paul Augustin Aizpiri, Michel Henry, Jean Jansem, Jean Dufy, Claude Venard, Bernard Buffet, Yvonne Canu and others. His paintings of Parisian beauties and boulevards are collected worldwide. Throughout the world his paintings are found in countless private and public collections. Throughout the world are to be found his paintings in countless private and public collections by the highly successful French painter, Charles Levier. Among those who are collectors are Mr. And Mrs. Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Adlai Stevenson, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Prince and Princess Poniatoski, Mrs. Dan Topping, Mr. And Mrs. Dean Martin and many others. He was part of the same European school of artists as many of the artists sold at Wally Findlay Gallery in Chicago, particularly French and Italian artists. Le Pho, Nicola SImbari, Vu Cao Dam, Marc Chagall, Antoine Blanchard, Tadashi Asoma, Bernard Buffet, Jean-Pierre Cassigneul and Camille Bombois. His work was included in the Important Miami Beach estate that included many paintings and sculpture by Post Impressionist masterpieces and works by Latin American masters. Select Exhibitions 1956 Van Diemen Lilienfeld Gallery, New York, NY 1955 Galeries de Colisee, Paris, France 1950 Martin Lowitz Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1949 Galerie Constantine, Lyons, France (solo) Select Public Collections Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ Tucson Flint Institute Of Art, Tucson, AZ Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, CA New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA Evansville Museum of Art & Science, Evansville, IL Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA The High Museum, Atlanta, GA Menton Museum, Paris, France Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France Literature E. Benezit, "Dictionnaires des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs"