Artists

Bernard Lamotte

French, 1903-1983

Born in Paris, on the Boulevard de Vaugirard in 1903. Bernard Lamotte always wanted to be a painter, at the age of six after visiting his ill father in the hospital, he returned home to record the scene in the smallest of details. At the age of 13, a fall down a staircase hospitalized him for two years, then kept him bedridden at home for another. His favorite pastime was watching the changing mood and atmosphere of the Rue de Faubourg St. Honore below his bedroom window. 

At age 17 he was accepted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and studied under Fernand Corman and Lucien Simon. Lamotte had moved to New York City by 1935, where he was based during most of his artistic life. Within one year, he had secured a one-man show at the Wildenstein Gallery. His studio above La Grenouille restaurant became a gathering place for many expatriate French artists, writers and actors. He married Lilyan White Kent, an artist and former wife of a Hollywood producer. He became a naturalized citizen in 1951. The couple divided their time between the city apartment and a home in Southampton. He and his wife traveled widely including Tahiti, the West Indies and India among others and continually returned to Paris for his subject matter, capturing fleeting moments of everyday life in the quartiers, parks and cafes. His method was to sketch en plein air and photograph and then complete canvases in his studio.