About

Our Gallery has decided to dedicate an exhibition to the Animaliers of the interwar period, a moment particularly rich in creation, which marks a real renewal in the History of animal art. Pompon was not, in truth, the creator or head of the school, since he was not known, strictly speaking, to any student, but, just as Barye had done before him, he invented a style that was to become a school and in which a large number of artists would recognize themselves who would start working in his footsteps. It is certain that the presentation of his works in this Salon, which featured everything traditional in the genre, could only lead to a misunderstanding, or even a split. And this was done on March 26, 1931, when Georges Gardet dissolved the Société des Artistes Animaliers, under the pressure of the youngest of them who were going to form a new group around the one they had become disciples of and who was going to take for name : Groupe des Douze. This group brought together various artists, painters, engravers, lacquers and sculptors… was not so homogeneous, but all represented modernity in this genre.