Peter Laurent de Francia 1921 – 19 2012) was an Italian British artist. Influenced by nineteenth-century socialist painters such as Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier, as well as by socially committed artists of his time such as Renato Guttuso and Pablo Picasso, de Francia created artworks with a drive for social change.
Peter de Francia wrote about the work of artist Fernand Leger, and followed Leger’s style of slow, rounded, volumetric figures and cubist perspectives, taking advantage of the full and dynamic compositional pathways Leger used to propel the composition.
Fernand Leger (1931)
Peter de Francia (1953)
Then in 1950, Francia met Max Beckmann and George Grosz in New York, and his drawings shifted to be more linear.
Max Beckmann
George Grosz
Peter de Francia (1960)
Peter de Francia, Disparates (A Little Night Music) 1969
Peter de Francia, Figures in a Farmyard, 1972
Beckmann, Grosz, and Francia worked pathways into the composition now with line, leading the eye in and around the page to hold the viewer as the narrative and characters unfolded in their complex large scale charcoal drawings. Francia loved charcoal for “the wonderful way you can go between tone and line. If I was shut up for the rest of my life with a room full of charcoal, and two rooms full of paper, I’d be perfectly happy”.
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1950s
Figure on a Ladder 1953
Seated Boy, Genoa 1950s
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1960s
Man Carrying a Child 1962
Immigrant ‘Head of an Algerian’ 1965
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1970s
Disparates (A Little Night Music) 1969
Figures in a Farmyard 1972
Disparates (Romulus and Remus) 1974
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1980’s
Peter de Francia: Modern Myths
Part of a show displayed at the NYSS in 2008, featuring de Francia’s work from the 1980s
Disparates (Procession), 1974 charcoal on paper 31 x 22 inches
Disparates (Masculine Attitudes), 1974 charcoal on paper 30 x 22 inches
Disparates (No Clear Evidence of Atrocities), 1974 charcoal on paper 30 x 22 inches
Prometheus 1, 1984 charcoal on paper 22 x 28 inches
Prometheus 2, 1983 charcoal on paper 22 x 28 inches
Prometheus 3, 1983 charcoal on paper 22 x 30 inches
Tunisian Brothel 1, 1985 pencil on paper 15 x 18 inches
Tunisian Brothel 2, 1985 pencil on paper 15 x 18 inches
Tunisian Brothel 3, 1985 pencil on paper 15 x 18 inches
Tunisian Brothel 4, 1985 pencil on paper 15 x 18 inches
Tunisian Brothel 5, 1985 graphite on paper 15 x 18 inches
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Peter de Francia
Peter Laurent de Francia 1921 – 19 2012) was an Italian British artist. Influenced by nineteenth-century socialist painters such as Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier, as well as by socially committed artists of his time such as Renato Guttuso and Pablo Picasso, de Francia created artworks with a drive for social change.
Peter de Francia wrote about the work of artist Fernand Leger, and followed Leger’s style of slow, rounded, volumetric figures and cubist perspectives, taking advantage of the full and dynamic compositional pathways Leger used to propel the composition.
Then in 1950, Francia met Max Beckmann and George Grosz in New York, and his drawings shifted to be more linear.
Beckmann, Grosz, and Francia worked pathways into the composition now with line, leading the eye in and around the page to hold the viewer as the narrative and characters unfolded in their complex large scale charcoal drawings. Francia loved charcoal for “the wonderful way you can go between tone and line. If I was shut up for the rest of my life with a room full of charcoal, and two rooms full of paper, I’d be perfectly happy”.
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1950s
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1960s
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1970s
Peter de Francia’s drawings in the 1980’s
Peter de Francia: Modern Myths
Part of a show displayed at the NYSS in 2008, featuring de Francia’s work from the 1980s
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