Charles Malle French, b. 1935

Charles Malle was born in Douai, Northern France in 1935 into a family of artisans. On his father’s death in 1950, as part of the process of mourning, he started drawing, and as a result was sent firstly to St. Luc de Tournai, a Belgian School of Fine Arts, and subsequently to the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Textiles at Roubaix, graduating four years later.

During a lifetime spent pursuing his twin passions of restoring antiques, and painting, he was always inspired by memories of France as it was in his youth – fairs, snowy towns, the sea, and busy Paris squares and streets. He found his subjects mainly in Paris, Normandy and the Atlantic coast.

Although he had always exhibited his paintings throughout his life, in 1990 the Parisian gallery owner Jean-Paul Villain gave him a one man show, followed by one man shows in Lyon, Toulon, and Deauville with the Galerie Estades, allowing his work to be appreciated by a larger public.

Charles Malle’s unique style and visual memories of a slower paced world are executed in a palette that is simultaneously soft and luminous, with emphatic strokes of pure colour which give each of his paintings movement and vitality.