René Gruau (4 February 1909 – 31 March 2004)

Count Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli della Caminate, professionally known as René Gruau (4 February 1909 – 31 March 2004) was a fashion illustrator whose exaggerated portrayal of fashion design through painting has had a lasting effect on the fashion industry. Because of Gruau's inherent skills and creativity, he contributed to a change in the entire fashion industry through the new pictures that represented the already popular designs created by designers in the industry. The benefits, including economic stimulation and enhancement of advertising are still present in the industry today via a new way of fashion illustration, fashion photography. Gruau became one of the best known and favorite artists of the haute couture world during the 1940s and 50s working with Femina, Marie Claire, L'Officiel, L'Album Du Figaro and an assortment of "high-style" magazines. Gruau's artwork is recognized and commended internationally in some of Paris and Italy's most prestigious art museums including the Louvre in Paris and the Blank in Italy. In addition to his international fame and recognition, "Gruau's artwork is known for its timeless and enduring style".

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Biography

Born Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate in Rimini, Italy, on 4 February 1909, Gruau was the son of Alessandro Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate, an Italian count, and Marie de Gruau de la Chesnaie, a French aristocrat.

When he was 7 years old, René's parents were separated, then divorced. His Mother Marie de Gruau lost most of her fortune after her lawyer managed to steal from her during the divorce proceedings. 

Gruau demonstrated talent for drawing throughout much of his early life which was encouraged by his mother, his father, however, wanted him to become royal military commander.

After his parent's divorce, Gruau lived with his mother. In 1923, Gruau moved to Milan with his mother, and very soon he began to support his mother and himself by selling drawings to the Milanese fashion journal Lidel, at age 14. There he quickly showed his talents and the success Lidel opened doors for him to other magazines like Eva, Dea, Donna, Sovrana, Bellezza, etc. It was during this period, between 1924-1926, he took his mother's last name Gruau, instead of his father's last name and noble connection, and changed his first name as well, signing his works as René Gruau.

In the early 30s, René Gruau moved to Paris, where he started to collaborate with magazines like Marianne, Le Figaro, as well as International periodicals like Chapeaux Mode, Die Dame, Die elegante Welt, although he kept working with some of the Italian magazines he had been collaborating while living and working in Milian.

But his real success came in 1937, when he started to work with the magazine Fémina, the then main arrival of Vogue France. Since then, he was able to find work with other Parisian magazines like Marie Claire, L'Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris, Très Chic, and even Vogue itself, but also International magazines of United States of America and UK.

More importantly perhaps, Gruau started collaborating with the most prestigious houses of haute couture in Paris, including Pierre Balmain, Jean Patou, Lanvin, Lucien Lelong, Charles Worth, Robert Piguet, Rochas, Elsa Schiaparelli  and Cristóbal Balenciaga.

During World War II, Gruau moved to Lyon then Cannes to find work. It was in Cannes he started his long and successful collaboration with the magazine International Textiles for which he would designed the covers until 1984.

Christian Dior with illustration of René Gruau

René Gruau's illustration of Christian Dior's New Look

René Gruau's illustration of Christian Dior's New Look

In 1947, Gruau became artistic director for advertising in Maison Christian Dior. The already successful Italian illustrator and the then unknown French couturier had known each other when both were young illustrators at Figaro in 1930 and formed a friendship which would last until Christian Dior's untimely death in 1957.

Gruau contributed greatly to Christian Dior's  most iconic "New Look" of the time, with his interpretation and upgrading of old-style graphic illustration. 

René Gruau's illustration of Christian Dior's perfume Miss Dior

René Gruau's illustration of Christian Dior's perfume Miss Dior and Diorama

Gruau also was the creator for all of Christian Dior's perfume advertising, from its first perfume Miss Dior, then Diorama, then Diorissimo, then Eau Sauvage, and  Jules in 1980. Since the 50s, fashion photography was increasingly replacing the place of fashion illustration, but Christian Dior remained loyal to his friend Gruau who would in turn remain loyal to Maison Christian Dior even long after the couturier's early death.

Gruau moved to the United States in 1948 to work for Harper's Bazaar (and occasionally). He remained with the magazine for two years, and then went to work as sole illustrator for Flair.

Besides working with the fashion magazines, Gruau expanded his career to poster and advertising design.

In the 50s Gruau moved back to Paris, and dedicated to poster designs for the cabaret Lido since 1956, for which he would work until 1994. Since 1961, he started to work also with Moulin Rouge.

Gruau's advertising campaigns for Moulin Rouge and Lido de Paris utilised an old-world aesthetic, celebrating the traditional poster-art graphics of Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard and the pre-1900 Parisian artists and classical Japanese drawings.

René Gruau's illustration of Lido de Paris

René Gruau's illustration of Lido de Paris

René Gruau's illustration of Moulin Rouge

René Gruau's illustration of Moulin Rouge

In his long career involved with advertising, Gruau had worked on campaigns for names such as Christian Dior, Air France, Martini, and Omega watches. But in the world of advertising, he was perhaps best known for creating the marketing images for Christian Dior's Miss Dior perfume and its Rouge Baiser lipstick, and his name was mostly connected with Christian Dior. According to Alan Riding of the New York Times, "everything he did, he evoked the glamour and style of the world of high fashion". ​

René Gruau's illustration of Christian Dior's lipstick

Curiously, although Gruau worked in various fields in his long productive career, from periodicals, magazines, fashion houses and cosmetics companies, to musicals , the only time he was involved in cinema was when he designed movie poster for Italian director Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita in 1959, although Hollywood had tried to seduce him for years. Was that due, at least partially, to the fact that Federico Fellini's birthplace was also Rimini, the same as Gruau himself? 

René Gruau's illustration of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita film poster

In his lifetime, Gruau worked for numerous magazines including Marie-Claire, Femina, Elle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Flair, L'Officiel, Madame Figaro, and L'Officiel de la Couture. And Gruau collaborated with various house of haute couturier like Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, Elsa Schiaparelli, Rochas, Lanvin and Elizabeth Arden, in total 167 brands. Gruau gave life to their haute couture clothing and expanded their popularity with his captivating illustrations.

Illustration of René Gruau for Bally shoes

Gruau has been exhibited internationally at the Paris Musee du Costume in 1989 and The Musee de la Publicite in 1999. The 2011 Spring/Summer Haute Couture Collection of Christian Dior by John Galliano was heavily inspired by Gruau's works.

​Gruau's birthplace, Rimini, holds a permanent collection in its city museum. Today Gruau's works are in the permanent collections of many art institutions, including the Louvre in Paris.

Biografia

​Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate, figlio del conte Alessandro Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate e della nobile parigina Marie de Gruau de la Chesnaie, visse a Rimini fino all'età di 7 anni, quando i suoi genitori si separarono. Il divorzio ufficiale dei genitori fu seguito con grande scalpore dalla stampa, soprattutto perché Marie de Gruau si affidò ad uno degli avvocati più conosciuti a quel tempo che anziché aiutarla si prese gioco di lei e riuscì a sottrarle la maggior parte dei suoi beni.

​Affidato alla madre, la sua vita fu scandita in base alle stagioni da trascorrere ognuna in un luogo diverso: estate a Rimini, autunno a Milano, inverno tra Montecarlo e Parigi. Renato nutriva un forte attaccamento per la madre, che lo assecondava nelle sue passioni artistiche, a differenza del padre che preferiva per lui una carriera diplomatica. Tra il 1920 e il 1921 il giovane Renato, spronato dalla madre, fu allievo del pittore riminese Gino Ravaioli, primo e unico suo insegnante di disegno pittorico, con il quale imparò le basi del disegno e coltivò il suo talento.

A partire dal 1923, Renato si trasferì a Milano dove cominciò quasi subito a fare del suo talento artistico il suo lavoro, volendo aiutare economicamente la madre. Grazie alle conoscenze di Marie de Gruau, iniziò a lavorare come illustratore di moda per la rivista Lidel. Nei circa dieci anni trascorsi a Milano, l'artista divenne sempre più famoso, ampliando le sue conoscenze e collaborazioni con il mondo della moda. Renato si occupava di disegnare i figurini dei modelli delle varie case di moda, da pubblicare poi sulle riviste del settore. Oltre all'abbigliamento si occupava anche di arredamento e novelle. È tra il 1924 e il 1926 che Renato incominciò ad apporre la firma René Gruau alle sue opere, prendendo quindi il cognome della madre.

Agli inizi degli anni trenta, René Gruau si trasferì a Parigi, continuando la sua attività di illustratore e instaurando rapporti lavorativi sempre più rilevanti. Lavorava per riviste come Marianne e Le Figaro, ma anche per numerosi periodici come Chapeaux Mode, Die Dame, Die elegante Welt.

Il vero e proprio successo arrivò nel 1937 grazie alla collaborazione con la rivista Fémina, antagonista del Vogue francese. A partire da quel momento ebbero inizio tutte le sue collaborazioni con le più prestigiose case di moda parigine, tra le quali Patou, Lanvin, Lelong, Worth, Piguet, Rochas, Schiaparelli e Cristóbal Balenciaga; ma anche con altre riviste, come Marie Claire, Vogue, L'Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris, Très Chic.

Nel periodo successivo alla seconda guerra mondiale, René Gruau conquistò anche il successo internazionale grazie al lavoro presso l'atelier di Christian Dior, un grande amico con il quale condivideva la stessa visione stilistica sulla femminilità, riuscendo così a rappresentare egregiamente lo stile New Look. René amava molto la vita mondana parigina, come lui stesso raccontava: “Erano veramente anni d'oro per la moda. Parigi era una città brillante e straordinaria, c'erano sempre feste e balli. Era un periodo molto chic, io ero diventato improvvisamente molto famoso, mi cercavano da ogni parte, finalmente guadagnavo bene con il mio lavoro. Andavo molto volentieri alle feste”.

​Dopo varie collaborazioni con prestigiosi periodici di moda, decide di dedicarsi anche alla cartellonistica: la pubblicità, che egli considera un “problema di ordine visivo”, lo stimola e lo appassiona. Gruau si avvale a tal proposito di una vera e propria strategia comunicativa che sfrutta tecniche quali primissimo piano del soggetto, inquadratura a troncare l'immagine e linee diagonali, in modo da catturare l'attenzione dell'osservatore, guidarne lo sguardo e animare la rappresentazione. Articola inoltre scenari tridimensionali attraverso espedienti quali crachis a spruzzo, puntinatura e fondi sfumati.

Oltre a lavorare per inserzionisti appartenenti all'universo della moda, si presta anche alla committenza dei grandi music-hall parigini, il Moulin Rouge e il Lido. 

​Renato amava ricordare di essere “nato con la matita in mano”, a conferma della formazione da autodidatta. Il suo interesse per la moda è profondamente suggestionato dalla vita mondana cui la madre lo aveva introdotto. Il suo stile si distingue immediatamente nel panorama della pubblicistica grazie ad atmosfere cupe rese elegantemente da sottili ma decisi tratti allungati, a definire figure dal trattamento vagamente espressionista, ottenuto grazie alla prevalenza di tinte sature. 

Le sue fonti d'ispirazione riconducibili al panorama artistico del tempo, provengono soprattutto dall'artista Cappiello e Sem, caricaturista della Parigi mondana. Ben più pervasiva è l'influenza dell'arte giapponese. L'equilibro percettivo che l'artista raggiunge grazie a questi accostamenti esalta la carica simbolica e il potere evocativo delle sue immagini.