Camille Bombois.
(France, 1883-1970)
The Wrestlers.
Signed lower left.
Oil on canvas.
Excellent antique condition with surface dirt, small accretions, and scuffs consistent with age.
Image is 16.25"w x 13"h.
Carved and gilt frame is 24"w x 20.75"h x 2.5"d.
Provenance: Estate of Philadelphia Attorney Marvin Lundy, (1931-2011) and Curtis Jay Roth, died 2020.
The Mike Dale Collection.
Est. $5,000-$8,000.
Ship: $75

Camille Bombois spent the first years of his life on a river barge. When his father found employment with the railroad, Bombois was sent to school. He felt restless there and at the age of twelve went to work on a farm. Bombois was muscular and pugnacious; he became the champion wrestler of the region. His greatest joy was vanquishing the strong-men in travelling circuses. Eventually he joined the circus as wrestler and strong-man, and for many years fought every day against professionals and amateurs alike. Bombois had been interested in painting since his teen years and wanted to get to Paris to further that interest, so in 1907 he gave up the circus to become a laborer on the Paris subway. He gave up that job for night work where strong men were needed to run newspaper presses, a job that would allow him to have daylight hours to devote to his painting. This worked well until 1914, when Bombois went to war and remained at the front for 4 ½ years. Never one to do things half way, Bombois earned three separate decorations for bravery. Upon his return from the battlefield, encouraged that his wife had been able to sell some of his paintings in his absence, Bombois resumed his routine of nighttime labor and daytime painting.

German art dealer Wilhelm Uhde (1874-1947) discovered Bombois in 1924 and exhibited his work in the Galeries des Quatres Chemin in 1927.Critics compared Bombois' work to that of Henri Rousseau because of his naïve style and attention to detail, but the two artists could not have been more different.Rousseau was a fantasist who created fanciful scenes from his vivid imagination. Bombois was a realist who painted what he knew: scenes of river banks (likely remembrances from his childhood on a barge), and circuses, and wrestlers. The figures he sets in his scenes make gestures and assume postures that are those of the artist himself. Camille Bombois like Andre Bauchant, Seraphine Louis, Henri Rousseau, and Louis Vivin) is considered one of the artists of the "Sacred Heart" group: the most important self-taught artists of early 20th century France.

Philadelphia Attorney Marvin Lundy (1931-2011), whose collection this painting comes from, was founder of Lundy Law, and was a personal injury attorney in Philadelphia for over 50 years. His firm's financial success allowed him to spearhead philanthropic efforts on behalf of numerous organizations. He was a board member of more than 35 Delaware Valley Institutions devoted to law, history, medicine, science, religion, and the arts, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lundy and his life partner of 35 years, Curtis Jay Roth, took four to six trips abroad each year. The painting offered here was likely purchased on one of those trips.