André Planson (1898-1981), a French figurative painter, is in a somewhat neglected, overlooked position. Although overshadowed by more internationally famous contemporaries such as Matisse or Bonnard, Planson developed a distinctive vision centered upon landscape, colour and the human figure. As a member of the Peintres de la Réalité Poétique, he rejected both academic conservatism and the growing dominance of abstraction, instead producing paintings that celebrated everyday beauty through expressive colour and lyrical observation. One of the best examples of this joie de vivre artistic philosophy is seen in his paintings of female nudes in which he is presenting sensuality not as provocation but as an extension of harmony between humanity and nature.
Fig.1 André Planson, Reclining Nude in a Wheat Field, 1940s
Fig.2 Andre Planson, Nude, n.d.
Young Brigitte Bardot
The manner in which Planson treats the female nude is familiar because it belongs to a long European tradition, from Titian and Rubens through Renoir and Bonnard. And still his paintings successfully avoid both the idealised academic perfection and the psychological anxiety found in the much of the twentieth-century modernism. On the contrast, Planson’s female figures appear to be just as relaxed as the settings in which they are in, mostly countryside or the Mediterranean setting. The woman seen in Fig.1. resting in a cornfield is a great example of this joyous, contemplative approach to a female nude. Here the blonde beauty with a face of young Brigitte Bardot appears completely relaxed and moreover deeply integrated within her surroundings. She is one with nature, one might say. The cornfield lady, just as Planson’s other nudes such as the one in Fig.6 and Fig.7 are rarely confronting the viewer directly; their closed eyes and reclining poses create an atmosphere of quiet introspection rather than direct, aggressive seduction.
Fig.3 Andre Planson, La Siesta
Fig.4 Andre Planson, Reclining Nude, no date
Layered Creams
A defining feature of Planson's art is his way of handling the colour. Instead of constructing nude bodies through careful modelling, Planson is building them carefully with broad painterly strokes that remain visible across the canvas. Flesh consists of layered creams, pinks, ochres and cool greys, allowing light to shimmer across the body. This painterly approach emphasises the physical act of painting itself, reminding viewers that the image is composed through colour relationships rather than photographic imitation. Woman in Fig.1. illustrates this synthesis particularly well. The nude occupies the foreground while golden wheat stretches into the distance beneath an expansive blue sky. The body echoes the colours of the surrounding landscape so closely that flesh and earth appear almost interchangeable. Such visual integration suggests fertility, abundance and seasonal renewal; themes which are deeply rooted in European pastoral imagery. The inclusion of an easel displaying another landscape further transforms the work into a meditation on artistic creation itself. The painter simultaneously observes nature, paints nature, and positions the human body as part of nature.
Fig.5 Andre Planson, Nude in the Garden, no date
Fig.6 Andre Planson, Nude on a Blue Background, 1942
Fig.7 Andre Planson, Reclining Nude, 1953
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