GEORGES MAURICE CLOUD
Biography
Born in Escoublac, Brittany, France, on October 13, 1909.
He did his schooling in Escoublac and La Baule, also attended the Municipal Art School of Saint Nazaire.
In the late twenties, Cloud enrolled in the Beaux-Arts Academy in Paris, working part-time for architects as an intern and as a draughtsman.
He was part of the architect René Crevel’s studio from 1927 until 1931. In 1937, he was awarded First Prize at the Academy for Architecture for his design work.
Active as an artist his whole life, he also worked free-lance for architects and designed furniture and interiors for private homes.
In the thirties and early forties, he was commissioned to paint frescoes for private residences as well as commercial buildings (restaurants, bars and cabarets), including the "La Baule Casino" and the well-known Hotel de l’Hermitage.
He also painted frescoes on ocean liners l’Ile de france, Le Paris, Le Liberté, the De Grasse, etc. and created billboards for movie theaters in Nantes, St Nazaire and La Baule.
After serving during WW2, he returned to his native La Baule and worked in the family business with his father.
A few years later, he started his own company as an interior decorator, covering the La Baule, Saint Nazaire and Southern Brittany region.
Although he only moved to Paris in the mid-fifties, Cloud succeeded in remaining involved in the Parisian art world as a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1939, then in the Surindépendant Movement from 1940 until 1957.
This entailed his participation in the movement’s exhibitions and group shows, where he showed paintings and drawings in every “Salon”.
As such, he received much attention from the press and was regularly written about in both the Parisian and the local Britton press.
In 1949, the Galerie Breteau in Paris gave him a solo show that was well-received in Paris’ art world.
The Galerie Harmonies in Saint Nazaire exhibited his “Papiers Découpés”, à la Matisse, in 1955.
Cloud and his family moved to Paris in 1956. There he worked as a free-lance decorator and continued more than ever to paint and create his artwork, inspired by Paris’ intensely active artistic life.
In the 1960s, he was project manager as well as the head designer for the advertising and graphics department of a major paint company, “Le Saint”.
Maurice Cloud pursued his artistic interests from the 1920s throughout his life and until his accidental death in 1973.
He closely followed art events and the flow of the ever-changing currents of modern art
