Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola


Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola was a French painter. He is known for his pioneering leadership of the Camoufleurs in World War I.

Early life

De Scévola was a student of Fernand Cormon and Pierre Dupuis at the École des beaux-arts de Paris.

Pastellist

De Scévola was a pastellist, remarkable for his silky, velvety and smooth style.
"Making his only aesthetic concern accuracy of the most naked kind", he left an extensive body of work including scenes of alcoves, landscapes, flowers and society portraits. However his Symbolist-inspired works are particularly esteemed. He exhibited at the Salon des artistes français.
De Scévola was a member of the Société des Pastellistes Français and the Comité de la Société des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He was made an Officer of the Légion d'honneur in 1914, by which time he was known as an elegant society portrait artist.

Military camouflage

De Scévola is considered one of the inventors of military camouflage during World War I, together with Eugène Corbin and the painter Louis Guingot.
At the start of the war, in September 1914, De Scévola, serving as a second-class gunner, experimentally camouflaged a gun emplacement with a painted canvas screen. On 12 February 1915 General Joffre established the "Section de Camouflage" at Amiens. By May 1915 the Section de Camouflage put up its first observation tree, an iron lookout post camouflaged with bark and other materials during the Battle of Artois. By the end of 1915, De Scévola became commander of the French Camouflage Corps, employing cubist artists such as André Mare, a specialist in camouflaging lookout posts. By 1917, De Scévola's team had grown to 3000, taking in artists including Jacques Villon, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Charles Camoin, Louis Abel-Truchet and Charles Dufresne.

Works

"SSNBA" indicates the work was exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.