PROGRAMME DE LA REVUE DES TROUPES; COMMEMORATING THE AWARD OF THE LEGION OF HONOR TO THE FLAG OF THE SENEGALESE TIRAILLEURScirca July 1913 Watercolor and gouache painting created as cover artwork for the official souvenir program of the French Bastille Day military review ("Revue des Troupes") held on July 14, 1913. The piece is signed lower right by Maurice Orange (1867–1916). The composition commemorates a specific and significant event at that year's review: the official award of the Cross of the Legion of Honor, France's highest order of merit, to the regimental flag of the Senegalese Tirailleurs (Tirailleurs Senegalais), the corps of colonial infantry recruited from French West Africa. The central figure, an officer in dress uniform, carries the honored standard, richly trimmed and decorated, while a color guard of tirailleurs in their characteristic red chechia caps and dark blue uniforms stands at attention with fixed bayonets. Unframed. Sheet: 20.5 x 15.25 inches $400-600
ARTIST PROFILE: Maurice Orange (1867-1916) was a French painter and illustrator born on March 9, 1867, in Granville, in the Manche region of Normandy, and he died of typhoid fever on February 28, 1916, in Paris at the age of 48. A precociously talented draftsman, he earned a scholarship from the General Council of the Manche to study in Paris, and in 1885 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Jean-Leon Gerome, a specialist in orientalist and historical themes, and Francois Flameng, a master of historical painting; he also became close with the military painter Edouard Detaille. From 1887 to 1914 he exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français, winning medals and travel scholarships, including one in 1891 for a painting of veterans commemorating Napoleon's death, and another in 1893 for "Les Defenseurs de Saragosse," which funded a trip to Egypt. His extensive travels through Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, North Africa, and especially Egypt shaped his artistic imagination throughout his career. Orange worked across a wide range of media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and pastel, and was particularly admired as a colorist. In 1913 he took part in the Salon des Peintres Militaires, and in 1915 he was named an official painter to the French Ministry of War. His work is held today in his native Granville at the Musee du Vieux Granville and the Musee d'Art Moderne Richard-Anacreon, as well as at the Musee Thomas-Henry in Cherbourg and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Lo.
