Provenance
The Artist's Family; private collection
Note: Born in Barbary, France on Febrary 4, 1905, Louis Berthommé Saint-André spent his early childhood in Saintes, a commune in the southwest of France. Initially a student of architecture at Georges Naud, Berthommé-Saint-André entered the École des Beaux-Arts of Paris in 1921 where he studied under Fernand Cormon and Jean-Paul Laurens.
He was the recipient of the coveted Abd-el-Tif Prize in 1925, allowing him to remain in Algiers to paint. He began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1924, where he won a silver medal in 1928. He also exhibited at the Salon d'Automne beginning in 1928, at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1934-1936, and at the Salon des Tuileries after 1935.