William malherbe biography

William Malherbe (French-American 1884 - 1955) 

William Malherbe was a French Post impressionist painter born in 1884 in the medieval town of Senlis just north of Paris and was well known both in the U.S.

and in Europe for his beautiful and colorful still lives, outdoor scenes, and nudes. 

His experiences in WWI marked him deeply; Time Magazine found him after four years in the war, almost pathologically shy.  This war experience was shared by his brother Henry, a writer and music critic, and in 1925 William illustrated Henry s Goncourt Prize-winning war memoir La Flamme au Poing with copper engravings.  These striking images were engraved by the specialist engraver Achille Ouvré (French, 1872-1951) from Malherbe's drawings.

Malherbe's artistic success came the 1930s when he exhibited at Salon d'Automne and after he was taken up in by the gallery Durand-Ruel, the famous Parisian gallery whose fortune had been made by its backing of the Impressio