Nicolas de Stael

Sometime in 1940 he must have met his future gallery owner Jeanne Bucher, as well as the artists Alberto Magnelli, Sonia Delaunay, Hans Arp and Le Corbusier. In September 1942, the de Staël family moved to Paris and Nicolas began to work completely abstractly. His first exhibition took place at Galerie Jeanne Bucher, as well as the second (1944), in the company of the painters Wassily Kandinsky and César Domela Nieuwenhuis. After the liberation of Paris (still with Bucher) in 1945, his work was first recognized at a solo exhibition. He became acquainted with the painters André Lanskoy and Georges Braque and joined the 'Nouvelle École de Paris'. Jeannine died in 1946 and later in the year he married Françoise Chapouton. They settled in a larger studio and regularly hosted Georges Braque. Thanks to influential contacts, the international art market, especially the American one, gradually began to open up to De Staël (including in New York). The major museums in London, Paris, New York, Washington, etc., also began to show interest in his work and he signed a new contract with the Parisian gallerist Louis Carré. The demand for De Staël's works increased enormously and travel to the United States began to become part of the regular pattern.