ROGER CHAPELAIN-MIDY

Biographiy

Roger Chapelain, known as Chapelain-Midy was born on August 24, 1904 in Paris. Born as Chapelain, he will add the name of the second husband of his mother. His vocation as a painter is early. Very young, he went to the Louvre to copy the paintings of the great masters. In 1926, he enrols at the Colarossi Academy. Charles Picart-Ledoux is a teacher there and gives him friendly advices. In 1927, at age 19, he makes his first sending to the Salon d'Automne. He carries out advertising work for some income that allows him to ensure his daily life. He then exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants and at the Salon des Tuileries from 1929. It is in 1930 that he makes his first exhibition at the gallery Drouant, rue de Rennes in Paris. He wins the Prix des Muses, awarded by a jury of painters and writers, that allows him to discover the Italy of the Renaissance. Then he travels to Spain, Holland, Belgium and United Kingdom.

In 1934, the City of Paris and the French State made their first purchases, inaugurating a long series of acquisitions. In 1935 he exhibited at the Bernheim Gallery. He gets married that same year and settles rue Lhomond in the 5th arrondissement of Paris where he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1937, he exhibits at the Venice Biennale. He wins the Carnegie Award. He makes his first decorations: Théâtre du Palais de Chaillot, pavilion of Syria and Lebanon at the International Exhibition with Jean Picard Ledoux. He is considered as one of the young painters from the French tradition and on whom all hope is based. From that year, foreign museums buy his works. His painting represents abroad the contemporary French figurative school.

In 1938, he obtained in Pittsburgh with Marquet and Utrillo, one of the Carnegie awards.

In 1939, he makes a special exhibition at the Montaigne gallery. An exhibition having been organized at the Amigos del Arte Gallery in Buenos Aires is the occasion of a long trip to Argentina, a source of inspiration.

In 1948, invited by the Egyptian government, he teaches at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, exhibiting in Cairo and Alexandria and visiting Egypt. In 1950, he exhibits at the Institute of French Art in London, in 1954 at the Wildenstein Gallery in New York.

He exhibits annually at the Charpentier Gallery between 1954 and 1958.

In 1951 he is part of the Cannes Film Festival jury with Jean Cocteau and Fernand Léger.

Professor at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs in Paris, he is appointed in 1955 foreman at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

In 1961, the biennale of Sao Paulo dedicates a room where he presents all his models of costumes and receives the Grand Prize of the Theater. Travel keeps punctuating his work. He participates in multiple group exhibitions in museums and galleries.

The Grand Prize of the theater is awarded to him at the international biennial of Sao Paulo in 1962.

Wall decorator of talent, it completes between 1942 and 1974 the decoration of several steamers such as France, Provence, Brittany, Compiègne; but also the Palace of Congress of Versailles, the faculties of science of Rennes and Paris, and many more. In this period, numerous sets and costumes are commissioned for the Paris Opera (Les Indes galantes by Rameau (1952), The Magic Flute of Mozart (1954), the Sarah Bernhardt Theater, the Comic Opera, the Comedy French, the Cologne Opera.