Pair Of French Portraits Oil On Canvas, 'Les Enfants'

Style: Large pair of French oil on canvas paintings of two children; brother and sister. With their wide, chestnut-brown eyes, these paintings, though naive in technique, perfectly capture the innocent connection between these beloved children, their eyes seeking each other. Signed Costanzo Waldemaro Figlinesi 1912-1991. Unframed.

Story: Bought from a local French woman in L'isle Sur La Sorgue in Provence, France. The portraits' origin story is that they were painted and given to a French couple (parents of the children) by an Italian Resistance fighter and artist (Costanzo Waldemaro Figlinesi) who they sheltered during WWII, supposedly as a heartfelt thank you and goodbye. A note in Italian from the artist is on the back of the girls painting.

Developing a passion for drawing at 17, Figlinesi earned recognition from the Italian Ministry of Education in 1931 for his still-life work and began exhibiting in Florence. During World War II, he served as an Italian soldier in Salon-de-Provence. Captured by the Germans following the 1943 armistice, he refused to cooperate; however, his status as an artist granted him the freedom he needed to escape and secure shelter. After the war, Figlinesi lived a bohemian life in Paris and Marseille before achieving commercial success in the 1960s and '70s across the French Riviera and Provence.

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