CHARLES LEVIER
"TWILIGHT IN MONTMARTRE"
WATERCOLOR, SIGNED
FRANCE, C.1960
27 X 19 INCHES

Charles Levier
1920-2004
Throughout the world are to be found his paintings in countless private and public collections by the highly successful French painter, Charles Levier. Among those who are collectors are Mr. And Mrs. Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Adlai Stevenson, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Prince and Princess Poniatoski, Mrs. Dan Topping, Mr. And Mrs. Dean Martin and many others.
He was born in 1920 of a French father and American mother in Corsica. He held a fascination with color and form that led him, at age seventeen, to the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs for private studies. World War II came along and Levier served in the French Army in North Africa, later becoming Liaison Officer with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.
Coming to America, to live, he divided his time between the USA and France, preparing for his first one-man show, which took place at the Galerie Constantine, in Lyons in 1949, followed by an American debut in Los Angeles in 1950. The year 1955 found him exhibiting at the Galleries de Colisee in Paris and then returning to America where an old friend, Dr. Lilienfeld of Van-Diemen, Lilienfeld Gallery in New York City began to present his paintings.
Dr. Lilienfelds taste was widely respected and his scholarship much reported since he had helped to compile and write biographies for the definitive are reference work in German, Thieme-Becker. His personal enthusiasm for and recommendation of Leviers work was instrumental in establishing him as a significant artist, and proved a most valuable introduction to innumerable collectors.
For over thirty years, Levier has enjoyed an important position with countless exhibitions around the world. E. Benezit, "Dictionnaries des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs", vol. 6, page 630, confirms Leviers solid price structure b y listing prices obtained for his works at public auction in New York City over thirty years ago (1961), at $900 - $1,500.
He is represented in the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and the Menton Museum in Paris. In the USA, his work can be found in the permanent collection of the Atlanta Museum, the Seattle Museum, the Evansville Museum, the New Orleans Museum and the San Diego Museum.