Georges Cheyssial artwork • painting • previously for sale The ballet rehearsal in the Opéra, Paris

Born in Paris in 1907, Georges Cheyssial has been a student at the École des Beaux-Arts since he was 14 years old. In the 1930s he was briefly an admirer of Renoir's work, but he broke away from it to develop a style all his own. Famous and beloved, he has held various public positions since the 1950s: he is elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, becomes president of the Société des Artistes Francais and of the Cinq Académies and becomes curator of the Musée Henner in Paris. In addition to performances with children, landscapes and flower still lifes, Cheyssial's oeuvre mainly comprises genre scenes and ballet scenes on and behind the stage of the Paris Opéra. He also painted monumental wall decorations.