Art Deco Period Cubist Nautical Harbour Scene by Yan Bernard Morel (Dit Dyl)

Late Art Deco Period, Cubist watercolour of a nautical harbour scene painted by Yan Bernard Morel (dit Yan Bernard Dyl ) in 1939.

Yan B. Morel, born on June 18th 1887, was a French painter, landscape designer, decorator, illustrator and film maker.

Morel was a friend of Robert Delauney the cubist painter and became an ambassador for the Art Deco movement.

He produced many advertisements for various companies ( eg. Campari in 1929 ) and was shown in the famous Paul Poiret collection : Pan-Annuaire du luxe a Paris, Devambez, 1928.

He is also well known for his illustrations for book covers ( often in dry point ) produced by Simon Kra such as ‘ les oraisons amoureuses ‘ by Jeanne-Aurelie Grivolin , ‘Lyonnaise’ by Roger Pillet and ‘ La danse macabre’ by Pierre Mac Orlan. Morel was also known for his drawings and photos of the erotic, mainly anonymous. He also produced his own book of illustrations called ‘ La petite ville ‘ which detailed the daily life in a provincial village.

His paintings were exhibited in the ‘Salon des Tuileries ‘ in 1937 and 1938.

Yan B was deported by the Germans in 1943 for acts of resistance ( harbouring and helping Jews to flee the country ) and sent to Buchenwald where he died in 1944.