Gruau

René (1909). French-Italian illustrator. Born in Rimini, son of the Earl, Alessandro Zovagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate and Maria Gruau. He chose his mother’s name as his pseudonym. The youngest child of a large family and becoming an orphan at the young age of 15, he quit high school to find a job that would allow him to be independent. His talent at drawing allowed him to earn his living. In 1926 he met Vera Rossi Lodomez, director of the magazine Lidel, with which he collaborated until 1930. Problems at the magazine urged him to move to Paris, where he began to collaborate with Fémina. From 1937 to 1938 he worked as a designer in Holland, England, and France. The magazine Marie Claire hired him during the Second World War. For Gruau this was the occasion to gain experience in illustrations for fashion, feuilleton (supplements), and short tales. After the Liberation, Fémina, Vogue, L’Officiel de la Couture, and Harper’s Bazaar requested his collaboration. His style was successful, characterized by a surprising minimalism. The obvious reason was to simplify the printing process. He designed large surfaces of one single color with a nervous yet precise line and recurrent photographic themes, such as horizontal and vertical stripes and squares. Gruau particularly went along with the play of Chinese shadows: He attained the peak of his career in the period of the New Look. He illustrated the famous book Cucina cucita a mano (Hand-sewn Kitchen) for Dior. He designed for Jacques Fath and Balmain. In Italy, he collaborated with Novità and with the official magazine of the textile sector (Trasformazione Tessile, translated as Textile Transformation). He gradually abandoned fashion illustration to dedicate himself to advertising. He worked on the promotion of a perfume launched by Dior, and did the same for perfumes by Balmain, Griffe, Fath, and Elizabeth Arden. He also worked for cosmetic houses (Pajor, Rouge-Baiser, and Peggy Sage), fabric manufacturers (Dormeuil, Rodier, and Fred), fashion accessories (Bally, Perrin gloves, and Montezin hats), house linen (Scandale, Lejaby, and Valisère), and ready-to-wear (Blizzard and M. Griffon). With his posters for the Lido and Moulin Rouge created after 1956, he began to invade Paris. In Italy, his most celebrated advertising campaigns remain those created for Bemberg’s fabrics and the Schu-Schu perfume by Schuberth. He created Laura Biagiotti’s logo and matching images. He also created the image of the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome where, as professor, he held annual seminars for fashion and advertising graphics students. His drawings have become part of fashion’s cultural heritage. Many books have been dedicated to him. (René Gruau by JoÍlle Chariau; Gruau, Hercher 1989, and the monograph published by Franco Maria Ricci). There have been numerous important photographic exhibitions dedicated to his work, organized in museums and galleries across the entire world. Maria Pezzi, in her biographic book Una vita dentro la moda (A Life Inside Fashion), recalls, “I found a shy, reserved, and lonely person in his studio in Rue Jean Goujon with Liberty windows. On tables and scattered on the floor, there were numberless drawings with his monogram G, surmounted by a star. A sort of poetic brand. He told me that one day a small stain of ink had fallen on his signature and he had camouflaged it turning the stain into a star. His work was genial.””