Pierre Ambroise de Berroeta born in Paris in the 17th arrondissement on the first of April 1914 was the son of Jacques Alfred de Berroeta and his wife Marthe Tinel. Alfred was an industrialist in the goldsmith's trade whose business connections were in Argentina but his great passion in life was art and he collected the work of many of those who have since become famous. Did this influence his son? The fact remains that Pierre, from his very earliest years,displayed a great interest in drawing and colours. In parallel with his studies the Lycée pasteur at Neuilly, Pierre received drawing lessons from Madame Sampigny and lessons in painting and wood-engraving from Clément Cerveau the painter. Holidays were spent in the Basque Country in the family villa at Beyris, today a district of Bayonne; this child of delicate health eventually grew into the robust adult who was to resist the hardship of captivity in Stalag IIc. Having gained entrance to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in May 1933, he worked under the guidance of André Dewambez and then of Charles Guérin. Student treasurer and then student in charge of his fellow painters he made the acquaintance of another pupil, Marguerite Barboteu known as "Guichonne", whom he was later to marry. As a competitor for the Prix de Rome he was let down by his teacher Charles Guérin, who did not give him his backing and who even refused to sit on the jury in order to register his opposition to the institution. As soon as he had entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts they had exhibited his work which had attracted the attention of the critics. Called up on the 15th of April 1935 he did his military service in Alsace at Oberhoffen (Bas Rhin) in the 20th squadron of the Army Service Corps; ever an artist he decorated the regimental mess with a fresco and designed the regimental badge. Demobilised in September 1936 he resumed his studies at the Beaux Arts. When he was remobilised on the 24th of August 1939 at Nancy he was at first posted to traffic duty and then to the172nd battalion of the Engineer Corps. He was taken prisoner almost immediately and sent to Stalag IIc at Greifswald in Pomerania on the Baltic coast. The officer in charge of the Stalag seeing some drawings he had done on odd scraps of paper recognized his gift and obtained for him paper, pencils, indian ink and colours so he could draw.......well-known Parisian monuments and life in the Stalag. Pierre de Berroeta was allowed to keep one drawing for every twenty he handed over to the Germans; the Army Museum has kept some of them marked with the seal "Stalag IIc". Thanks to the camp doctor and to two men who were to remain his friends for the rest of his life, he thought up a scheme to get himself sent back to France; he had lost over 6 stones. Soon after he got back in June 1941 he married Marguerite Suzanne Charlotte Barboteu in the following September at the Town Hall in Neuilly-sur-Seine and at the church of Saint-Ferdinand-des-Ternes. A prolific artist and an untiring worker he had already taken part in three exhibitions before the year was out. Then one exhibition follows another; the Salon d'Automne, the Page gallery in Bayonne, the Saint- Nazaire Art Group, the Daricarrère gallery in Biaritz; his art is representational, he loves the circus and exhibits with les Frères Bouglione at the Cirque d'Hiver a series of works for "Les Amis du Cirque"which attract considerable attention. The 5th of June 1943: the birth of Marie Laure, the only daughter of Pierre and Guichonne. As Guichonne's parents live in Argentina, the couple decide emigrate to that Latin-American country where, so it seems, their reputation goes ahead of them since the press announces the arrival of two artists while they are still in mid- Atlantic. Pierre de Berroeta's palette becomes rich and varied: landscapes, colours, Indian faces, native animals. He exhibits in the major galleries, paints the portraits of personalities of Argentinian high society but also of gauchos and Amerindians, His trips to France provide him with an opportunity to help his fellow countrymen to discover that distant land which lives nevertheless after the European pattern; in due course he becomes one of Argentina's most famous artists if not the most famous. He who has never yielded to facility nor sought after honours now sees a different future for himself; he decides to come back to France where he does not enjoy the same notoriety and to continue his research, first by becoming a tapestry designer and then by taking up abstraction. His abstract paintings are works that he will return to again and again to retouch them and in which the foundations of his art acquired at the Beaux Arts are to be found side by side with his personal research in a great variety of different fields: forms, materials, compositions, colours, supports. More than 150 tapestries will be woven after his cartoons at Aubusson, at Les Gobelins or at Beauvais in response to commissions by the State or orders from private citizens but Pierre de Berroeta does not forget to offer his art to the great majority by designing cartoons for mechanical weaving which the reduced cost puts within the reach of all.l Gradually representation will give way to abstraction but there are still the occasional moments of doubt: he tries his hand at all possible subjects: portraits, still lifes, street scenes, animals, architecture. In 1958 following upon a journey to Peniscola the decisive step is finally taken ( except for the day when, much later, challenged to do so by his grandsons, he throws off their portraits in five minutes). His first abstract paintings use only a limited range of colours and seem to reveal the intensity of the inner struggle which Pierre must have gone through as his art evolved in this new direction. Then colours return accompanied by thicknesses - a feature of his canvases of the Sixties. The Seventies see the flowering of his genius and this in turn allows him to turn to other forms of art: structures in a variety of materials, slabs of glass, earthenware tiles, enamelled Volvic lava and still more tapestries. The next two decades mark a return to gouache and canvas. His joy at being close to the nature he loves - for from now on he spends more time in the Basque Country than in Paris - gives rise to works of great maturity, with an important change however in 1994 following upon serious health problems in 1993. His eyesight deteriorates at the end of 2001 forcing him to take a rest from his work which he endures with dignity. Pierre de Berroeta dies on the sixth of February 2004 at Isturitz. Translation :Walter HINCHEY

Pierre de BERROETA

Biography

Pierre Ambroise de Berroeta born in Paris in the 17th arrondissement on the first of April 1914 was the son of Jacques Alfred de Berroeta and his wife Marthe Tinel. Alfred was an industrialist in the goldsmith's trade whose business connections were in Argentina but his great passion in life was art and he collected the work of many of those who have since become famous.

Did this influence his son? The fact remains that Pierre, from his very earliest years,displayed a great interest in drawing and colours. In parallel with his studies the Lycée pasteur at Neuilly, Pierre received drawing lessons from Madame Sampigny and lessons in painting and wood-engraving from Clément Cerveau the painter.

Holidays were spent in the Basque Country in the family villa at Beyris, today a district of Bayonne; this child of delicate health eventually grew into the robust adult who was to resist the hardship of captivity in Stalag IIc.

Having gained entrance to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in May 1933, he worked under the guidance of André Dewambez and then of Charles Guérin. Student treasurer and then student in charge of his fellow painters he made the acquaintance of another pupil, Marguerite Barboteu known as "Guichonne", whom he was later to marry. As a competitor for the Prix de Rome he was let down by his teacher Charles Guérin, who did not give him his backing and who even refused to sit on the jury in order to register his opposition to the institution. As soon as he had entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts they had exhibited his work which had attracted the attention of the critics.

Called up on the 15th of April 1935 he did his military service in Alsace at Oberhoffen (Bas Rhin) in the 20th squadron of the Army Service Corps; ever an artist he decorated the regimental mess with a fresco and designed the regimental badge. Demobilised in September 1936 he resumed his studies at the Beaux Arts.

When he was remobilised on the 24th of August 1939 at Nancy he was at first posted to traffic duty and then to the172nd battalion of the Engineer Corps. He was taken prisoner almost immediately and sent to Stalag IIc at Greifswald in Pomerania on the Baltic coast. The officer in charge of the Stalag seeing some drawings he had done on odd scraps of paper recognized his gift and obtained for him paper, pencils, indian ink and colours so he could draw.......well-known Parisian monuments and life in the Stalag. Pierre de Berroeta was allowed to keep one drawing for every twenty he handed over to the Germans; the Army Museum has kept some of them marked with the seal "Stalag IIc". Thanks to the camp doctor and to two men who were to remain his friends for the rest of his life, he thought up a scheme to get himself sent back to France; he had lost over 6 stones.

Soon after he got back in June 1941 he married Marguerite Suzanne Charlotte Barboteu in the following September at the Town Hall in Neuilly-sur-Seine and at the church of Saint-Ferdinand-des-Ternes.

A prolific artist and an untiring worker he had already taken part in three exhibitions before the year was out. Then one exhibition follows another; the Salon d'Automne, the Page gallery in Bayonne, the Saint- Nazaire Art Group, the Daricarrère gallery in Biaritz; his art is representational, he loves the circus and exhibits with les Frères Bouglione at the Cirque d'Hiver a series of works for "Les Amis du Cirque"which attract considerable attention.

The 5th of June 1943: the birth of Marie Laure, the only daughter of Pierre and Guichonne.

As Guichonne's parents live in Argentina, the couple decide emigrate to that Latin-American country where, so it seems, their reputation goes ahead of them since the press announces the arrival of two artists while they are still in mid- Atlantic.

Pierre de Berroeta's palette becomes rich and varied: landscapes, colours, Indian faces, native animals. He exhibits in the major galleries, paints the portraits of personalities of Argentinian high society but also of gauchos and Amerindians, His trips to France provide him with an opportunity to help his fellow countrymen to discover that distant land which lives nevertheless after the European pattern; in due course he becomes one of Argentina's most famous artists if not the most famous.

He who has never yielded to facility nor sought after honours now sees a different future for himself; he decides to come back to France where he does not enjoy the same notoriety and to continue his research, first by becoming a tapestry designer and then by taking up abstraction.

His abstract paintings are works that he will return to again and again to retouch them and in which the foundations of his art acquired at the Beaux Arts are to be found side by side with his personal research in a great variety of different fields: forms, materials, compositions, colours, supports.

More than 150 tapestries will be woven after his cartoons at Aubusson, at Les Gobelins or at Beauvais in response to commissions by the State or orders from private citizens but Pierre de Berroeta does not forget to offer his art to the great majority by designing cartoons for mechanical weaving which the reduced cost puts within the reach of all.l

Gradually representation will give way to abstraction but there are still the occasional moments of doubt: he tries his hand at all possible subjects: portraits, still lifes, street scenes, animals, architecture. In 1958 following upon a journey to Peniscola the decisive step is finally taken ( except for the day when, much later, challenged to do so by his grandsons, he throws off their portraits in five minutes).

His first abstract paintings use only a limited range of colours and seem to reveal the intensity of the inner struggle which Pierre must have gone through as his art evolved in this new direction. Then colours return accompanied by thicknesses - a feature of his canvases of the Sixties.

The Seventies see the flowering of his genius and this in turn allows him to turn to other forms of art: structures in a variety of materials, slabs of glass, earthenware tiles, enamelled Volvic lava and still more tapestries.

The next two decades mark a return to gouache and canvas. His joy at being close to the nature he loves - for from now on he spends more time in the Basque Country than in Paris - gives rise to works of great maturity, with an important change however in 1994 following upon serious health problems in 1993.

His eyesight deteriorates at the end of 2001 forcing him to take a rest from his work which he endures with dignity.

Pierre de Berroeta dies on the sixth of February 2004 at Isturitz.

Translation :Walter HINCHEY