Art: Painters in Paris

First art reports out of Paris:

¶ Pablo Picasso, 62, was well and busy in his Rue Saint Augustin studio. Now almost white-haired, he had a new bathroom, a new six-months-old son. He had refused to sell to Germans personally. Because Hitler considers Picasso’s work degenerate, Germans who had bought Picassos from dealers dared not do so openly.

¶ Henri Matisse, now 74 and suffering from cancer, was at Grasse. His recent works were bold, bright studies of young girls.

¶ Georges Braque and Georges Rouault were working in Paris as usual. Rouault kept up a barrage of bitter controversies and lawsuits against his enemies.

¶ Raoul Dufy, violently anti-Nazi, retired during the occupation to the Alpes Orientales, was working occasionally but was plagued by arthritis.

¶ Pierre Bonnard, at the great age of 77, was still at work, living almost incommunicado in the country near Cannes to which he retired at the beginning of the occupation.

¶ Lithuanian-born Chaim Soutine was said by friends to have died of fear that the Germans would attack him as a Jew.

¶ Painters Andre Derain, Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac, Maurice de Vlaminck, Othon Friesz, and Sculptor Charles Despiau were in disgrace as collaborationists.