Olivier DEBRE

Olivier Debré – Biography, Original Lithographs and Prints

Olivier Debré (Paris, 1920 – Paris, 1 June 1999) was one of the leading painters of post-war French lyrical abstraction. Best known for his “signs-personages” of the 1950s and the broad, fluid “sign-landscapes” that followed, he was also the painter of monumental stage curtains for the Comédie-Française in Paris and the opera houses of Hong Kong and Shanghai. His graphic output – colour lithographs, etchings, aquatints, screenprints and illustrated books – is recorded in a catalogue raisonné of 470 numbers covering 1945 to 1991.

Le Coin des Arts currently offers several of Debré’s late original lithographs: the large Xian rouge et orange (1990), Le Rideau rouge (Séguier) (1987), two impressions of Signe-paysage (1989) and Ossiach (1996). Each sheet has been chosen for the freshness of its colour, the quality of the printing, its edition details, provenance and condition.

Early years: architecture, Touraine and Picasso

Debré was born into a prominent Parisian family. His father was the paediatrician Robert Debré; his elder brother Michel Debré would become General de Gaulle’s first Prime Minister; and his maternal grandfather was the academic painter Édouard Debat-Ponsan. In 1938 he entered the architecture section of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the studio of his uncle Jacques Debat-Ponsan, and also spent time in Le Corbusier’s studio. During the war he returned to painting at the family house in Touraine, and in 1941 showed his first canvases at Georges Aubry’s gallery in Paris. Around 1942–43 he visited Picasso’s studio in the rue des Grands-Augustins several times. By the Liberation he had moved into non-figuration, with Signe de ferveur noire.

The “signs-personages” and a first showing in Liverpool (1949–1963)

His first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Bing in June 1949. Over the next few years he developed the signes-personnages: upright figures reduced to a single sign, built up in thick impasto with the palette knife. Britain saw his work early. The chronology published by his Paris gallery lists him in The John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 2 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 1959 – the same year as his first exhibitions in the United States, at the Phillips Collection in Washington and Knoedler in New York, where he met Mark Rothko and Franz Kline. Their large colour fields encouraged him to lighten his paint and enlarge his formats. In 1963 Knoedler showed him in Paris and New York at the same time, with a catalogue introduced by the poet Francis Ponge.

Painting the Loire: the sign-landscapes (1964–1984)

From the 1960s, landscape became his central subject. Debré often worked outdoors on very large canvases, above all at Vernou-sur-Brenne on the Loire, but also near Saint-Tropez and Royan. Rather than describe a view, he set down the feeling it gave him in wide fields of colour, drips and stains – the signe-paysage. His first French museum retrospective came in 1966 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre. Large public commissions followed: a mural for Expo 67 in Montreal, a ceramic wall for Expo 70 in Osaka and a canvas for the Lycée Rabelais in Chinon (1975). In 1977 the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff mounted a retrospective – the last major British showing of his work for more than four decades. Appointed professor at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1979, he ran its mural-painting studio until 1985.

Curtains, commissions and recognition (1985–1999)

In March 1985 the Culture Minister Jack Lang commissioned a new stage curtain for the Comédie-Française. Debré painted it between January and July 1987 in an aircraft hangar at Le Bourget, and it was unveiled on 16 September 1987; restored in 2023, it has since returned to the Salle Richelieu. The curtain for the Hong Kong opera house followed in 1989, a gift of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, then one for the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris (1996) and, finally, the curtain of the Shanghai Grand Theatre, unveiled on 15 November 1998. In 1991 his paintings were shown at the French Institutes in Edinburgh and London. A retrospective at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (1995) then toured Europe and Latin America, and in 1997 he designed sets and costumes for Carolyn Carlson’s ballet Signes at the Opéra Bastille. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts on 17 March 1999 and died in Paris that June. Since 2017 the contemporary art centre in Tours has borne his name (CCC OD).

British interest revived with Olivier Debré: Fervent Abstraction at the Estorick Collection, London (30 June – 26 September 2021), presented as the first major exhibition of his work in the UK for 44 years, with some thirty oils and works on paper.

Debré as a printmaker

Debré made prints from 1945 onwards. His first etchings, some seventy plates, are figurative; the signs-personages appear around 1951 in etching and drypoint, and in aquatint in 1958–59. His first lithographs, in the late 1950s, are in black; from the 1960s colour takes over, in step with the sign-landscapes. He also used screenprint and stencil. The large late lithographs of the 1980s and 1990s, published by the Librairie Séguier or by Machet-Cosson, were printed at the Art Estampe workshop in Paris, often on Arches wove paper; some carry the workshop’s blind stamp. Among his illustrated books are Jean-Clarence Lambert’s Mu Tei (Le Limitrope, 1982, thirteen lithographs), Edmond Jabès’s Bâtir à chaux et à sable (1990) and Julien Gracq’s Les Eaux étroites (1996).

The standard reference is the catalogue raisonné by Emmanuel Pernoud, formerly in charge of contemporary prints at the Bibliothèque nationale: Olivier Debré, les estampes et les livres illustrés, 1945–1991 (Publications de la Sorbonne), with 470 entries. A citation such as ‘Pernoud 445’ simply gives the entry number. Prints made after 1991, such as Ossiach (1996), fall outside it and are identified by publisher, printer and edition.

Collecting Olivier Debré prints: a buyer’s guide

Edition and numbering. One image may exist as numbered impressions, artist’s proofs (EA) and ‘hors commerce’ proofs (HC). Xian rouge et orange, for instance, was published in 75 numbered impressions plus proofs. Check that the numbering matches the recorded edition (see the printing).

Signature. Edition impressions are signed in pencil. A signature printed in the image is not enough (see the signature).

Paper and size. The late lithographs are often large (about 100 x 75 cm for Xian) and printed to the edge of the sheet, so look at the whole surface for creases and fading. Debré’s reds and pinks are light-sensitive: our framing uses UV-filtering glazing.

Catalogue raisonné. For anything before 1992, ask for the Pernoud number – and be wary of conflicting numbers quoted online for the same image.

Pitfalls. Exhibition posters and reproductions ‘after Debré’ are not original prints. Lithographs from books and journals, such as issue 27 of Ariel (1973), are original but should be described as such. See our authenticity page and what is an original print.

We show Debré alongside the lyrical abstractionists with whom the Estorick exhibition grouped him: Serge Poliakoff, Pierre Soulages and Nicolas de Staël, as well as Zao Wou-Ki and Hans Hartung. Explore the School of Paris and lyrical abstraction and our engravings and lithographs.

Sources and further reading

Emmanuel Pernoud, Olivier Debré, les estampes et les livres illustrés, 1945–1991, Publications de la Sorbonne · Olivier Debré: Fervent Abstraction, Estorick Collection, London, 2021 · Estorick Collection – Olivier Debré: Fervent Abstraction · CCC OD, Tours – ‘La peinture en scène’ press kit · Académie des Beaux-Arts – Olivier Debré, la peinture en scène (2026) · Galerie Diane de Polignac – chronology · Galerie de l’Institut – biography