Odette Pauvert

In autumn 2025, La Piscine will celebrate the anniversary of Art Deco and the centenary of the first Grand Prix de Rome awarded to a female painter with an exhibition dedicated to the work of Odette Pauvert (1903–1966).

The daughter and sister of artists, Odette Pauvert seemed at first glance to be following a predetermined path. After training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 1925 she became the first female painter to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome, which opened the doors of the Villa Medici to her for three years. There, she demonstrated the full extent of her talent in works that reveal her reverence for the masters of the Italian Quattrocento. On her return to Paris, the painter displayed her ambition to create large-scale decorative works. Her marriage in 1937 and the Second World War dealt a blow to her meteoric rise, and in the 1950s, the triumph of the avant-garde left little room for the proponents of classicism.

Throughout her career, Odette Pauvert pursued a resolutely classical and decorative ambition, bucking the trend of a certain vision of modernity. This distinctive feature naturally destined her for the walls of La Piscine. The exhibition aims to introduce visitors to this forgotten figure in painting and reinterpret her work in the light of recent research, questioning the place of women in the academic curriculum of the Beaux-Arts at that time. For La Piscine, this initiative is also a sign of its strong commitment to celebrating the female artists of the interwar period, who are omnipresent in its collections.

---

Curator:
Adèle Taillefait, curator of the Fine Arts collections, La Piscine – André Diligent Museum of Art and Industry.

Scientific advisor:
Thibaut Gemignani

This exhibition has been organised with exceptional loans from the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Villa Medici in Rome and in collaboration with the artist’s family.

---

Tickets

↑ Odette Pauvert (1903-1966), Autoportrait au foulard rouge, 1926. Pastel sur papier gris, 41 x 33 cm. Collection particulière.