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Michel Ciry

Born : 1919Died : 2018Documented citizenships : France

The French painter, printmaker, writer and composer Michel Ciry pursued several artistic practices in parallel, from printmaking to music and writing. Born in La Baule in 1919, he died in Varengeville-sur-Mer in 2018. During his studies at the École des Arts appliqués Duperré in Paris from 1934 to 1937, he made his first copper engraving in 1935; he exhibited at the Petit Palais in 1938 and became a member of the Société des peintres-graveurs français in 1941.

Printmaking occupies a central place in his work: he practised engraving, etching and drypoint, techniques to which the source attributes distinct effects and, in the case of engraving, a sharp, biting line corresponding to the intensity sought. His work includes, in particular, suites made for books: ten etchings for La Reine morte and thirty drypoints for La Relève du matin by Henry de Montherlant, as well as forty-six drypoints for Sylvie – Souvenirs du Valois by Gérard de Nerval. He made his first lithograph in 1955. Landscape painting appears in his work when he returns to painting: La maison du père Joseph was exhibited at the Galerie Charpentier in 1956, and this landscape strand continued in his work. Among the works recorded by the Art Institute of Chicago is Rooftops under the Snow, dated 1940. His watercolours and drawings were presented at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1961, and then at the Galerie de France in 1965, in an exhibition whose catalogue included a preface by François Mauriac.

Alongside his artistic training, Ciry studied musical composition with Nadia Boulanger from 1938; his compositions were performed at the festivals in Darmstadt in 1951 and 1952, and then at the Donaueschingen Festival in 1957. His writing took, in particular, the form of a diary begun in 1942, of which the source records 36 published volumes. In 2000, together with friends, he established the Michel-Ciry International Printmaking Prize. A museum devoted to his work opened in 2012 in Varengeville-sur-Mer, in an extension of his property, where more than one hundred of his works are displayed.

This profile brings together identity references for Michel Ciry and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

25 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky, Genève Enchères, DognyAuction, Piguet. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Works recorded at auction

Photograph : Piguet · Enlarge image ↗

Piguet

Harlequin

Oil on canvas

Original catalogue wording

Arlequin
huile sur toile

Catalogue period : 2025-09-11 — 2025-09-24

Published result : 3600 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 2000–3000

Michel Ciry

Works recorded at auction

Harlequin

"Paysage à Cintra"

"L'éventail"

,

"Les météores"

"Paysage à Cintra"

"L'éventail"

"Bateau à St-Servan".

Ferme en Toscane

Lac de Thoune,

"Antigone"

Portrait d'une vieille femme

Harlequin

Winter in Varengeville

Portrait d'un jeune homme

Route dans la campagne

Enfant de profil

Pascal"

"Vergers au printemps"

Häuser in Etoy.

"Emmaus".

Venezianische Kanalpartie mit Santa Maria della Salute.

Sicht auf die Basilika Santa Maria degli Angeli bei Assisi.

Baum in winterlicher Landschaft.

"Solitude".

Sources and references

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