GASTON LE BEUZE (c.1930-1960) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

Watercolour on paper

Signed and dated G. Le Beuze Paris-1942 lower right

36.00cm wide    30.00cm high    (14.17 inches wide  11.81 inches high)

Satirical criticism of Germans and French collaborators during the German Occupation of France (1940-44) are rare. Their discovery at the time may well have led to the artist’s deportation or even a death sentence. The following watercolour by Gaston le Beuze is, like the photographs of Paris occupé taken by André Gandner,(1) an important testimony to its time.

A shortage of resources led to problems in transportation across Paris. The metro worked sporadically, with some stations remaining permanently closed. Le Beuze has chosen the 1st class section of the metro station at Opera (2nd Arrondissement), which was both one of the headquarters of the Kommandantur and an area of Paris renowned for entertainment and Parisian luxury. Such places were exclusively reserved for Germans (cinemas were even referred to as Soldaten Kino) and those that collaborated with them. Even so, electricity restrictions were in place, which is demonstrated here by every other light bulb being switched off. The posters which advertise the big cinemas and theatres in the area are laden with symbolism and carry messages relating to each of the scene’s main characters. The poster for the Theatre Daunou reads: Tout n’est pas Noir (All is not Black), a reference to the black market. The corresponding gentleman wearing a flashy chequered suit is undoubtedly a profiteer holding a bag heavy with illegal goods. The two men fishing for cigarette ends are framed by the advertisement for Rene Jayet’s 1941 film: Ici l’on pêche (literally, `One can fish here', but in colloquial French meaning `Here one sins'). Jacques Daniel-Norman’s movie of the same year Le Briseur de chaînes (The Breaker of Chains) refers to the French resistance against the oppressors. A German officer walks beneath the poster. There is also an advertisement for a nearby tobacco shop, A La Bonne Blague (At the Good Joke), in front of which an over made-up woman stoops to pick up a fat cigar end, recently dropped by the corpulent Nazi official. Blague also means a tobacco storage jar and tobacco was an important occupation currency.

1. Mémorial Leclerc, Musée Jean Moulin, France