(1920-2001)
Gaston Sebire was born August 18, 1920, in Saint-Samson Calvados. He was a painter of landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and flowers. He was also an engraver, pastel artist and painter of theatre decorations. He settled in Paris in 1951. In 1953 he created the costumes and decorations for l’Ange Gris, with music by Debussy, for the Ballets of the marquis de Cuevas.
He lived and worked in Normandy and participated in numerous group exhibitions, including: Salon of Independents, Paris Salon of Tuileries, Paris Comparisons Salon since 1962, Paris Salon of French Artists since 1964, Paris. He appeared at other groupings in London with Lorjou and Clave, in Munich, Washington, Japan, and different exhibitions of the School of Paris at the Charpentier Gallery in Paris in 1953, 1954, a1955, 1956, 1946, 1958 and 1962, at the Biennial of the Jeunes au Pavilon of Marsan in 1957. He had many solo exhibitions: 1944- Galerie Gosselin, Rouen 1952 – Galerie Visconti, Paris 1956 – Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1961 – Galerie Combes, Clermont-Ferrand 1962, 1965 and 1968 – Galerie Drouant, Paris 1964 – Musee de Rouen 1965 – Wally Findlay Gallery, New York, and Chicago 1965 and 1971 – Wally Findlay Gallery, Paris 1976 – Cultural Center, Le Mesnis-Esnard 1986 – Retrospective, Museum of Fine Art, Rouen 1991 – with Cacheux, Roger Worms Association, Ville de Montfermeil 1992 – Wally Findlay Gallery, Paris. He received the Critic’s Prize in 1953, the Greenshields Prize in 1957 and the Gold Medal at the Salon of French Artists in 1968. Today his work can be seen in Museums around the world.
In 1952, Gaston Sébire had his first exhibition in Paris. The following year, 1953, a double triumph marked his career. He won both the Prix de la Critique and the Prix Casa Velasquez. His second award, the Prix Casa Velasquez, allowed him to spend a year and a half in Spain. Of the period spent in Spain, Sébire said, “They were my first, wonderful years without worry. For fifteen years I had never known what the next day would bring.”
1957 marked another important stage in his career, his painting “Le Dinde” won the Greenshields Prize in a field of 136 competitors. In France, even to gain entry to the list of candidates for the Greenshields Prize is an honor eagerly sought, and to win it is a triumph. The Greenshields Prize was established by Charles Greenshields, a Montreal lawyer who was in France when the First World War broke out. He at once enlisted in the Foreign Legion in order to serve with the French. When the war ended, Mr. Greenshields began a brilliant legal career in Canada, and it was only when he was in his sixties that he had the leisure to take up painting. Realizing that art is a profession for which one should begin to study in one’s youth, he had great sympathy for the difficulties and struggles of young artists. When he was seventy-three, he decided to make it possible for young artists to do what he himself could no longer hope to do. In memory of his mother he established the Elizabeth T. Greenshields Memorial Foundation which offers young artists of any country the possibility of spending a whole year in serious work without material worries. However, for artists in France, the Foundation offers two years of study, and a prize is awarded for both painting and sculpture. Thus, to the year and a half in Spain made possible for Sébire by the Prix Casa Velasquez was added another two-year period of study and work made possible by the Prix Greenshields.