Nicolas de Staël

Known for his abstract landscapes and still lifes that uniquely blend colour, form and texture, Nicolas de Staël was fascinated by the world’s many spectacles and documented them through his art. De Staël was born in 1914 into an aristocratic family in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His father served as a cavalry general under Tsar Nicholas II and the family was forced to flee after the Russian Revolution. Both Nicolas’s parents died in the early 1920s, meaning he and his siblings were raised by a foster family in Brussels where he would begin his formal art education at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts.

De Staël’s early work was influenced by the European avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, including Cubism and Fauvism. However, he soon developed his own distinctive style with thick impasto and a bold use of colour. His early paintings, often sombre in tone, gradually evolved into more vibrant and dynamic compositions, reflecting his growing interest in the emotional and expressive potential of colour and form.

In 1938 de Staël had moved to France, where he became an integral part of the post-war Parisian art scene. Having worked initially in the atelier of Fernand Léger, de Staël’s circle of friends came to include Sonia Delaunay, Le Corbusier and Jean Arp, who encouraged his tendencies towards abstract work.

His work during this period marked a significant departure from traditional representation, moving towards abstraction while maintaining a strong sense of structure and form. De Staël's paintings from this era showcase his ability to balance abstraction with figuration, using broad, gestural strokes and a vibrant palette to convey movement and energy.

What truly set de Staël apart, though, was the step he took beyond abstraction. This came with his football paintings, which marked a small but hugely significant move towards representation. His work Parc des Princes (Les grands footballeurs) (1952), which captured the spectacle of the 1952 international football friendly between France and Sweden, epitomises his ability to transpose real-life dynamism onto canvas using his palette knife. The work sold for an auction record price of €20,000,000 at Christie’s Paris in 2019.

In March 1953, de Staël travelled to New York to hang his debut American solo exhibition. Three months later, de Staël accepted an offer from the New York-based Paul Rosenberg to become his exclusive dealer in the United States. Rosenberg would show de Staël’s works in his gallery alongside those of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Henri Matisse.

Despite his success, de Staël’s life was marked by personal struggles, estrangement from his family and a sense of existential angst. His intense dedication to his art, combined with his perfectionist tendencies, often left him dissatisfied with his work. Tragically, in 1955, at the age of 41, de Staël took his own life. His death marked the end of a brilliant but brief career that left an indelible mark on 20th-century art.