BRAÏTOU-SALA (1885-1972) ✿

Albert BRAÏTOU-SALA (1885-1972) was a french painter born in the port town of La Goulette, Tunisia.Albert discovers his artistic vocation in the establishment of the White Fathers of Carthage in which he is a pupil.

In 1899, he lost his father, Moses Sala, and had to leave school to provide for his family. He worked in a bakery and collector in a department store, but also pursued artistic studies at the school of painting of Tunisia where he is master Maurice Bismouth. At that time, it was his sisters who served as his models.

In 1901, he decided to leave Tunisia then under French protectorate. A student at the Académie Julian in Paris, Adolphe Déchenaud, Henri Royer and Paul Albert Laurens, he adopted the name Braitou-Sala and rapidly established himself as one of the greatest  inter-war specialists in portraiture.

Exhibitor at the Salon des artistes français from 1913, he won the prize for the best portraitist of the Academy Julian in 1916. With a Silver medal at the Salon of French artists, his portraits were appreciated and noticed, notably by L'Illustration, which offered him Its coverage.

From 1919 to 1939, he painted several hundred portraits of socialites and celebrities; his clientele included such actresses as Jane Faber, Cleo de Mérode and Renée Falconetti.
Between 1936 and 1939, he represented France at the international exhibition held at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh with painters such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, André Derain and Marcel Gromaire. After losing a large part of his family in Nazi concentration camps, he settled in the south-east of France in the early 1960s and died in a relatively forgotten in 1972.