TONY THIBON

(1927-2014)

Tony Thibon was born on 15 August 1927 in Créteil (Val-de-Marne). His parents lived in a personal village house in the hamlet of Mély, with his older brother Jack and his sister Janet who was just a year and a half older than him. In early childhood, he lived happily and pampered in this close-knit family. Everything suggests that it is from this period that he will retain until his death, at the age of 87, on January 17, 2014, a jovial and optimistic character, all in love and humor.

Because then he had very difficult years. His mother died when he was just 9 years old. His father, distraught, entrusts them to the orphanage, his sister and him each on his own, while his brother goes into apprenticeship. Then came the war, the debacle, the German occupation.e orphae Exodus, then the greatest of the Resistance, he will have traumatic memories, vercome hardships.

At the same time he took advantage of the opportunities he had to observe nature and animals when the schoolchildren of the orphanage of Saint Mandé were sent to take refuge in Normandy, then, when he was back on Saint Mandé, in the family environment, a large part of his leisure time was spent observing and drawing animals at the Zoo de Vincennes, very close to his home.

It is therefore in evening classes that he follows his artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (that of the Place des Vosges at the time). Towards the end of the course, he was spotted by a professor named Lagrange. Thanks to him and Gérard Blitz, (the founder of the Club Méditerranée, whom he met in the village of Corfu, at his very beginning in tents), he engaged, first as a draftsman, in the construction sector, where he soon specialized in on-site surveys for the restoration of historical monuments. He will make a career in this sector, as an engineer site manager called to go from cathedrals to cathedrals, from castles to castles in the company of architects of historical monuments.

Whether before or after his marriage, he always manages to reconcile his professional activities with the pursuit of his work as a painter without earning remuneration, without neglecting family occupations. He is interested in social life in all its forms made the artist witness of his time. The stone, the material, the touch...

Any object brought back from his travels is a source of inspiration for the paintings he works on once he returns home. Outside he keeps the habit of memorizing everything he sees by drawing. And as soon as he has the opportunity, so especially on family vacation, he leaves with easel and drawing board in search of the place that will make him want to take out his brushes.

As a painter, he works, he progresses, he remains for a long time behind the large galleries and his exhibitions are generally limited to figurative works during a first period.

2022, Thibon’s works debut in the US exclusively with T Botero Galleries.