Augustin Nicolas Georges Grasmick, dit Grass-Mick 1873-1963

Born in 1873 in Paris (to a Lorraine family that had fled the German invaders just two years earlier), Augustin Grass-Mick showed an early talent for drawing. His parents regularly entertained numerous artist friends, including the caricaturist-sculptor Ferdinand Cresigny and poster designer Alfred Choubrac, a student of Jules Chéret. The painter Édouard Detaille, celebrated for his depictions of French military glory, took an interest in the young artist and offered guidance in his studio.

At fourteen, Grass-Mick attended the studio of lithographer Georges Lemoine, then trained in decorative arts with the Dangler brothers, participating with them in the 1889 Exposition Universelle. After completing his apprenticeship with the stained-glass painter Georges Lavergne, he took evening classes at the École des Arts Décoratifs. Around this time, he began a career as a poster designer and illustrator, publishing satirical graphics in Le Charivari, Le Cri de Paris, Le Rire, and La Chronique amusante. This work brought him into contact with the Parisian arts and literary scene, linking him with Verlaine, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and sculptors Rodin, Bartholdi, and Bourdelle.

After three years of military service with the 22nd Dragoon Regiment in Sedan, Grass-Mick settled in 1897 in a Montmartre studio at 67 rue Lepic, discovered for him by his friend Erik Satie. He devoted himself fully to painting, exhibiting with the Indépendants from 1903, then at Berthe Weill’s gallery alongside Matisse, Marquet, Dufy, and Picasso. His work gained recognition, and he participated in the 1905 Salon d’Automne, coinciding with the emergence of the Fauves, before his first solo exhibition with Berthe Weill in 1911. In 1912, he abruptly left Paris for Marseille with his wife, a native of southern France, continuing to paint while also pursuing art criticism and history, publishing two important studies on Puget and Daumier.

Our large oil on cardboard, depicting a corner of the artist’s studio, likely belonged to his submissions to the Indépendants in March 1906 and the Salon d’Automne a few months later. For several years, Grass-Mick enjoyed exhibiting colorful views of his interior, with walls densely covered in paintings, posters, and fans, which proved popular with collectors. The following year, Louis Vauxcelles praised the “twinkling interiors of M. Grass-Mick.” While the painting’s treatment is synthetic and Japonizing, with broad brushstrokes, the subject allowed the artist to employ vivid colors directly inspired by his Fauvist contemporaries, such as Derain, Vlaminck, and Matisse.