Mother of visual artist Yves Klein, painter Marie Raymond was born in La Colle-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes) in 1908. She discovered her vocation for art while visiting the studio of the painter Alexandre Stoppler in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and even as a young girl, she took her first steps working “on the motif” with him. In 1925, she met a young Dutch painter, Fred Klein, whom she married the...

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  Biography of Marie Raymond

  Mother of visual artist Yves Klein, painter Marie Raymond was born in La Colle-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes) in 1908. She discovered her vocation for art while visiting the studio of the painter Alexandre Stoppler in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and even as a young girl, she took her first steps working “on the motif” with him. In 1925, she met a young Dutch painter, Fred Klein, whom she married the following year. The couple immediately moved to Paris, where they lived the bohemian life of young, penniless artists in Montparnasse. Yves Klein was born in Nice in April 1928.
  

  In Paris, the Klein couple met many artists, including Jacques Villon, Kupka and Mondrian. Returning to the Côte d'Azur for a time, Marie Raymond took classes at the École des Arts Décoratifs (now Villa Arson), where she met abstract sculptor Emile Gilioli. In this pre-war period, they moved back and forth between Paris and the Midi, where the war would bring them back. In 1941-1942, Marie Raymond, whose painting had until then consisted mainly of figurative landscapes, began to paint “ imaginary landscapes ”. In 1945, she took part in her first major exhibition at the Salon des Surindépendants, where her work was shown alongside that of Hans Hartung, Jean Dewasne, Jean Deyrolle and Gérard Schneider. The following year, she exhibited with them at the exhibition “ La Jeune Peinture abstraite ” organized by Galerie Denise René, then alongside Serge Poliakoff and Engel Pak at the Centre de recherches d'art abstrait in Paris, and finally at the first Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.

  Exhibition after exhibition followed, and in 1947, Marie Raymond took part in two exhibitions at Denise René and the 2nd Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. In 1949, she won the Kandinsky Prize and took part in the first Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. This was a period of intense social activity for the artist: “ Marie's Mondays ” brought together gallery owners, collectors and young artists close to her son, including Jean Tinguely, Dufrêne, Hains, Villeglé, Arman and César.
  

  In 1951, the traveling exhibition “ Klar Form - 20 artistes de l'Ecole de Paris ” enabled him to show his work, in the company of Jean Hans Arp, César Domela, Alberto Magnelli, Poliakoff and others, in various northern European cities (Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Liège, etc.).
  

  The early 1960s were marked by her divorce and the death of her son.
  

  Marie Raymond's many exhibitions include one at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1957, and a retrospective devoted to her and her son at the Château-Musée de Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1972. Another major retrospective of his work was held at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Nice in 1993.

  In the mid-60s, the artist had decided to devote herself to painting very large formats.

  While Yves Klein died in 1962, Marie Raymond died 27 years later in Paris, in 1989.

  
  

  

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