René Gruau

René Gruau ( Renato actually Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate; born February 4, 1909 in Rimini, † 31 March 2004 ) was an Italian -born fashion illustrator, who accompanied the rise of the French fashion after the Second World War artistically. Through his work as a fashion illustrator, he reached the end of the 1950s, the height of his creative and famous worldwide. Among other things, he was responsible for Dior, Givenchy and Balenciaga. Where he used a particularly close relationship to Christian Dior, for which he also designed advertising posters.

Life

On February 4, 1909 Gruau was born as Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate in Rimini. His father, Alessandro Zavagli, comes from the Italian nobility, his mother, Maria Gruau, comes from the Parisian aristocracy. The parents separated when René Gruau was a little boy. He stayed with his mother. Some time after the separation, she settled in Milan. Gruau described his mother as a very elegant and fashion- interested. Together they visited regularly the fashion houses of Milan. Without the financial support of Alessandro Zavagli René and his mother could not afford the lavish lifestyle. Fourteen- year-old René worked as a fashion illustrator for a magazine to be dazuzuverdienen money. During this time he took the name under which he became famous for later: René Gruau. Even his trademark, the little star as a signature, came from this first creative period.

At the age of 20 years ( the late 1920s ), he left Italy and moved to Paris. Gruau left Paris during the German occupation in the direction of Cannes. End of his life spent Gruau in Rome, where he died on 31 March 2004. Previously, he had testamentary determined that his death should be kept secret for a month. He wanted to avoid attracting attention.

Work

The first works of the then 18 -year-olds for Italian magazine made ​​for attention, so that his illustrations appeared after a few years in France. Gruau was self-taught, he visited during his lifetime no signs school. His work has influences of Italian fashion illustrators of the early 20th century, such as Leonetto Capiello or Marcello Dudovich. Since the late 1960s he was increasingly inspired by Japanese calligraphy.

In the late 1920s he moved to Paris. Although there have been many fashion illustrators in Paris in the early 1930s, Gruau quickly got orders from leading fashion magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle. For every two weeks erscheindenen fashion pages of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro Gruau designed the illustrations. At this time the collaboration began with the well-known fashion designers. He distinguished collections for Chanel, Piguet, Schiaparelli and Balenciaga. He fled from the German occupiers to Cannes and worked from there. After the liberation of Paris, he returned there. In subsequent years, the reconstruction of the French fashion industry, Gruau accompanied artistically began. He has worked particularly closely with Christian Dior, who was instrumental in the re- emergence of the Parisian fashion houses. The New Look and the associated new image of women was indicative of the work of Dior, as well as for the illustrations Gruau. The drawings Gruau are particularly characterized by the elegance and ease that correspond to the attributes of the New Looks. He composed the different image elements - especially the models - sent so that they do not affect static, but alive and modern. He reduced backgrounds on monochrome surfaces in order to bring the characters and their clothing in the foreground. The lines of the drawings are powerful and contour the elegant silhouettes of the figures. This was his time without precedent.

After the great success of the collection of Christian Dior in 1947 wanted to bring the perfume Miss Dior on the market. He instructed Gruau with the development of a poster campaign for the launch and gave him a free hand here.

Gruau developed novel posters: The advertised product, the bottle was mapped to any of the posters, they showed only simple, elegant drawings, such as drawings of a swan or a fan.

With the death of Dior in October 1957 Gruau not only lost its sponsor and a source of his artistic work, but also a friend. Since their first meeting in 1936 they were close friends. For Gruau Dior's death also meant the slow farewell to the fashion illustration. Fashion photography replaced rapidly the illustrative example of the new collections. He turned his attention increasingly to advertising illustration, among others for Rouge Baiser (1948 and 1950 ), Le Bas Scandal (1950 ) or Ortalion (1957). She gave him greater freedom and thus new scope for his ideas.

The advertising campaign for the lipstick manufacturer Rouge Baiser gained particular notoriety. With clear and precise strokes and only three colors (black, white and red ) worked Gruau the effect of red lipstick out masterfully. These works were taken up in 2011 in the collection by John Galliano for the house of Dior and formative to a style element of his women's collection - in homage to Gruau.

With the onset of the altered image of women with the advent of the '68 generation and the decline of haute couture Gruau lost access to the zeitgeist. He distanced himself from the fashion of the prêt -à -porter.

In the 1970s, he designed theater costumes and still drew fashion posters and covers for fashion magazines. He remained active into old age, but without being able to measure up to its former importance and achievements.