« Estève », P. Francastel, Ed Flammarion, Paris, 1956
« Estève », J. E. Muller, Ed Hazan, Paris, 1974
« Rétrospective », J. Leymarie & Y. Peyré, Grand Palais, Paris, 1986
« Donation de Monique et Maurice Estève », Musée de Bourges, 1990
To read from the artist :
« Hommage à Maurice Estève », XXème siècle, 1975
Catalogue(s) raisonné(s)
*« Estève, l’oeuvre gravé », M. Prudhomme-Estève & H. Moestrup, Ed. Forlaget Cordella, Copenhague, 1986 *« Estève, la donation », M. Prudhomme-Estève, Ed. Musée de la ville de Bourges, 1990 *« Estève, catalogue de l’oeuvre peint », R. Maillard & M. Prudhomme-Estève, Ed. Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1995
Maurice Estève was born Le Cher (Culan) in 1904, he died there at 97 years old. He spent the main part of his childhood in his home town with his grandparents. He became very young passionately fond of art, drawing regularly while he was even not 8 years old! He was 10 years old when he discovered Paris, Le Louvre, Delacroix, Corot and Courbet. He started painting at the age of 11. His vocation was born. His father was opposed, his mother supported him, and Maurice Estève – he was only 19 years old – left Paris for 1 year in Spain where he controlled a drawing atelier of shawls.
Back in France, he devoted himself to the painting and did "odds jobs" for his living. In 1930, he settled down his own atelier. The same year, a first exhibition did not met success. Estève had to wait almost 20 years to expose again.
Self-taught painter, one time into the influence of the surrealists ( 1927-29 ) in Paris, full of admiration for Braque, dedicating a real passion for Cézanne (he painted in 1942 a "Homage" to this painter), the artist hesitated a long time between representational art and abstract art. Under the influence of Matisse, Bonnard, or Jacques Villon, Maurice Estève found "his colors" quickly. He finally chose the abstract art - while having always refuting this naming for his art -, making vibrate the balanced forms with vivid colours.
His art met consecration in 1987, with a museum created in the Hotel des Echevins (Bourges), in which 125 works he donated two years earlier were exposed. He is highly respected as one of the biggest painters of our time, Estève was a draftsman and a great water colourist, an etcher, an exceptional lithographer (his first work was made in 1955 at Mourlot’s workshop); collages also constituted separate creations.
In France as well as abroad, places where Estève exposed collective or personal exhibitions were uncountable; his first retrospective was organized, in 1948, in the Gallery Louis Carré (Paris), same gallery which still exposed Esteve’s works in 1998! This year, the Gallery Claude Bernard in Paris dedicated him a magnificent exhibition.
Maurice Estève was born Le Cher (Culan) in 1904, he died there at 97 years old. He spent the main part of his childhood in his home town with his grandparents. He became very young passionately fond of art, drawing regularly while he was even not 8 years old! He was 10 years old when he discovered Paris, Le Louvre, Delacroix, Corot and Courbet. He started painting at the age of 11. His vocation was born. His father was opposed, his mother supported him, and Maurice Estève – he was only 19 years old – left Paris for 1 year in Spain where he controlled a drawing atelier of shawls. 
