Eric Licoys’ tribute to a master unknown to Spanish painting

This is the story of several passions. The fascination of a painter, Eduardo Pisano, for the figure of Christ.

The enthusiasm of an art collector, André Licoys, who crosses in 1967, in Montparnasse, the road to the exiled artist and becomes his patron. The commitment of his son, Éric, finally, to extend the father’s patronage and offer the artist the notoriety he deserves.

In life, everything is a matter of meetings and links. Nothing predisposed André Licoys to be interested in painting. Born in 1912 – the same year as Pisano – it came from the northern bourgeoisie and framework in the paper industry. But his marriage in 1937 with Lilian Barclay, born in an old Scottish aristocratic family sensitive to the arts, opens the doors of culture to him.

“My father is starting to frequent antique dealers, is passionate about Flemish paintings,” says Éric Licoys. In Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine), where we live, his premium merchant, of Spanish origin, puts him in contact with the Picasso supervisor. My father meets in this gallery of Iberian artists, including Emilio Grau Sala and … Eduardo Pisano. The latter survives by selling sketches of nudes in the cafes of Montparnasse and painted day and night, with a religious ardor, in the unhealthy reduced which serves him as a workshop. »»

A modest friendship

Between the two men, the current passes. The Second World War marked them in their flesh. The Frenchman was taken prisoner at the Battle of Montcornet (Aisne), the Spaniard, requisitioned three years to build the Atlantic Wall. These two modest silent people understand each other without words. They share the same Christian faith.

“My father buys everything Eduardo produces. The works of his post-war period in Bordeaux (Gironde), those of his Parisian time, his sketches, lithographs, etc. It is insatiable and returns every Saturday the trunk of the car full to crack. “Still Pisano! But where are you going to put all these paintings?” question my mother. “The family home had become a museum,” recalls Éric Licoys. My sisters and I only had the right to rave or be silent! »»

“Pastoral landscapes of his native Cantabria”

Before meeting his Parisian patron, Pisano had already created a lot, explains the artist and art merchant Jorge Rodriguez de Rivera, who has accompanied Éric Licoys since 2013 in the editing of his exhibitions in France: “Unlike the Spanish painters of the Paris school, Pisano remained faithful to his Hispanity. Its brush represents the pastoral landscapes of its native Cantabria, the sea workers; The Spaniard paints ferias, bullfighters, severe dances and gypsies, but also self -portraits like Velasquez, Greco or Goya. His passion for Jesus radiates all his work. »»

A frenzy to paint

Pisano prays and speaks with God every day, represents penitents, Pietà, faces of Christ suffering passion, his hands carrying the stigma, his descent of the cross and his climb to heaven. “A part of his torments was embodied in the crucified course. My father bought him, at the end of 1977, an extraordinary way of the cross, a series of fourteen gouaches on cardboard, which I offered in 2016 to the San José Obrero church, in his hometown of Torrelavega”, adds Éric Licoys. Because, ripened by the desire for sharing, the collector’s son enters the scene.

The father knew Pisano, the son wants to have him recognized, to offer him the light he deserves. “Pisano was not a worldly. He was going totentulias (friendly meetings) at the dome or the select (two famous breweries of the Montparnasse district, editor’s note) With his compatriots, but did not participate in the holidays in the Noailles or other patrons. Notoriety did not interest him. »»

“He wanted to paint, feverishly throwing colors on the web, expressing his emotions with the force of suggestion of German expressionists, representing naive Christ circulated in black like Georges Rouault”, adds Jorge Rodriguez de Rivera.

15,000 visitors who came to discover the painter in Arles

After the death of his father in 2006, Éric Licoys took over the torch. The former director of Vivendi, honorary president of Parc Asterix, is an altruistic and wishes to give everyone access to beauty. So he continues the exhibitions. In 2011 in Valréas (Vaucluse), in 2012 in Spain, for the 100th anniversary of the birth of the painter.

In 2013, he organized a large retrospective at the Montparnasse Museum. In 2018, it offered around fifty paintings to the new Pisano museum in Torrelavega. The reward for his commitment? The 15,000 visitors who came to discover the painter at the Sainte-Anne chapel, in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), in 2023. In the guest book, Éric Licoys lit, emu, this child’s word: “Thank you, it’s beautiful and it’s free. Everything is said.