Maurice Armand Buffet (1909 - 2000)

Born 1909 in Sables-d’Olonne (Vendee) he worked as a glassmaker in the studio of the father of painter Francis Gruber, with whom he became close friends and who encouraged him to paint. Instead, he worked as a glassmaker in Orleans, then in Tours, and finally in Paris until the war. Taken prisoner, he escaped and hid in the outskirts of Lyons, then made his way to Paris. There, he devoted himself exclusively to painting.

Buffet was a student at Beaux-Arts in Paris, he worked as a glassmaker in the studio of the father of painter Francis Gruber

He had his first exhibit at the end of the war in 1946 in Paris, and produced a series of lithographs of the stained glass windows of the cathedral of Chartres. The success of Bernard Buffet, to whom he was in no way related, overshadowed his Maurice’s name and talent; fortunately, he achieved his own recognition with his exhibitions in The United States in 1961 and 1964. Prior to these, he had been participated in numerous salons: Salon d’Automme since 1954, Salon des Independants, the Nationale des Beaux-Arts des Terres Latines, and held memberships to each. From 1966, his style became defined. His landscapes fell into themes: low tides, the Provencal countryside, fishing ports, old and/or decaying buildings. His art is not surreal, but rather strikes a kind of poetic balance between reality and unreality. Please see E. Benezit, volume 2, page 382.