1894-1989
Works in the Collection
Biography
Alix Angele Marguerite Aymé (b. Hava) was born in Marseille, France in 1894. She studied drawing and music at the Conservatory of Toulouse. After graduation, she moved to Paris where she became the student of Nabi Painter Maurice Denis. She collaborated with Denis in the paintings for the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and worked in the Studios of Sacred Art in 1919. In 1921 Ayme moved to Hanoi with her first husband and there she studied the fine art of silk painting and lacquer work. She also studied printmaking and produced numerous etchings and wood engravings. In 1925 she became an art professor in Hanoi at the French Lycee School. In 1926 she returned to Paris and was commissioned to illustrate “Kim” by Rudyard Kipling. In 1930 she returned to Asia to be commissioned by the Royal Family in Saigon to create a series of large scale murals in the palace depicting rural life in Laos. These murals are still considered national treasures.
Ayme continued to work and travel throughout Indochina, India and Ceylon. She also painted in China, Japan, and Korea until she returned to Paris in 1945 after her son Michel was executed while her family was imprisoned by the Japanese in an internment camp. While in Paris in the mid-forties, Ayme was commissioned to do the Stations of the Cross for the chapel in Luc-sur-Mer and became close friends with the master painter and printmaker Foujita. In 1962 Ayme traveled to Brazzaville, Congo and continued to work until she died in 1989 on her 95th birthday. Her work can be found in the collections of the Louvre and the Musee des Trente in Paris, the Musee des Beaux-Arts in La Rochelle, and the Evergreen Museum at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as well as private collections in the United States and Europe.