S. Segal Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Simone Segal (1898 – 1969) was born into an affluent middle-class family in Bialystok, Poland. He began an engineering career in Russia before becoming interested in art. Read the full biography

Simone Segal (1898 – 1969) was born into an affluent middle-class family in Bialystok, Poland. He began an engineering career in Russia before becoming interested in art. In 1918 he abandoned his engineering studies and left Russia for Berlin, where he remained until 1924. In Berlin, he spent time with writers and artists gathered around the poets Mayakovsky and Essenine and the avant-garde magazine Spolokhi. In 1925 Segal settled in Paris and worked at everything except painting. He earned his living by doing various small jobs: librarian, laborer for Citroën and designer for Paul Poiret, who asked him to produce a series of dolls. In 1926 he stayed in Toulon and rediscovered the pleasure of painting. He met Bruno Bassano, a socialist activist exiled by Mussolini who founded the Tridente artists' colony. Bassano became Segal's loyal supporter and patron. Having returned to Paris in 1933, in 1935 he exhibited thirty gouaches at the Billet-Worms gallery. On the day the paintings were exhibited in the gallery, the entire series of works was purchased by the American collector Frank Altschul. After the war he settled in Jobourg, on the Cherbourg Peninsula. From 1946 to 1953 he lived happily, despite working continuously and becoming friends with the patron Henri Bernardi. In that period he created cartoons for eighteen tapestries made in Aubusson and by the Gobelins. In 1953 he returned to Paris and held numerous personal exhibitions. He died on the night of August 2, 1969.