Marcel Cramoysan: Painter of the École de Rouen

A girl in a red blouse leans on the counter of a fairground shooting gallery, dolls in tulle hanging behind her. It is not a Norman landscape, the subject on which his reputation rests, and that is exactly why it matters: Marcel Cramoysan (1915–2007) painted the funfair as tenderly as he painted the cliffs of his native Étretat. Two of his canvases, Le Tir forain and Le Balcon fleuri, are in our Modern Masters: 20th Century Art sale.

A pupil of Pinchon

Cramoysan was born in Étretat on 1 January 1915 and trained in Rouen under Robert Antoine Pinchon, the Post-Impressionist who had painted the Seine with Dufy and Marcel Duchamp’s brothers before the First World War. From Pinchon he took the two things that define the École de Rouen: a palette warmed by the light of the estuary, and a brush that stays loose without losing the drawing. He settled on the rue Quesney in Rouen, was collected first by Rouen amateurs and galleries, then in Paris, where the Galerie Pétridès took him on.

Beyond the landscape

Normandy came first, but he also painted Brittany, Provence, Corsica, Spain and Italy, plus still lifes, flower pieces, circus and fairground scenes and rare portraits. In 1957 he decorated the school of his home town with canvases of La Fontaine’s fables and Perrault’s tales; at its opening the school was hailed as the most beautiful in France. He died at Bois-Guillaume, outside Rouen, on 26 April 2007, and since 2011 the Espace Cramoysan in Étretat has kept his name in the town where he was born.

What collectors look for

The market knows Cramoysan mainly through his landscapes, which pass steadily through the Norman sale rooms and the Paris auction houses. The figure pieces and the flower paintings are rarer, and the pictures that combine flowers with a view of the sea are among the most sought-after. More on his artist page.

At Aurora & Athena

Le Tir forain (lot 21, oil on canvas, 61 × 50 cm, unframed, estimate 300 – 400 €) and Le Balcon fleuri (lot 22, oil on canvas, 55 × 46 cm, framed, estimate 300 – 400 €), both titled and signed by the artist on the reverse, are offered on 17 October 2026. Photographs, condition summaries and bidding on the lot pages: lot 21 and lot 22.