Andre-Leon Vivrel was born in Paris in 1886. At just 15, he decided to become a painter. A pupil at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, he entered the Academie Julian in 1910. There, he studied with Paul Albert Laurens, and later with Marcel Baschet and Henri Royer at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He rented a studio in Montmartre, just eight doors down from the studio of Auguste Renoir.
He first exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1913. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1917 for heroic conduct during the First World World. After the war, he returned to his studio in Montmartre and the French government soon bought the two works he exhibited at the Salon des Independants. In 1934, Vivrel presented 'Baignuses', the first in a series of large nudes exhibited at the Salon until 1943. The painting won a gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Français. Critics were unanimous in their praise of his talent. A major exhibition in 1942 illustrated the diversity of Vivrel's genres in 31 paintings, but it was landscape that he explored most passionately.
His land of choice was the Loiret, where his older brother Marcel owned a second home, a department directly south of Paris. Vivrel travelled extensively throughout France, including St Tropez and the Mediterranean, however when not on the road, he took Paris as his model. He painted the alleyways of Montmartre and the capital's monuments, such as Notre-Dame Cathedral. He liked to linger on the banks of the Seine, which offered him many unusual views of the city and inspired paintings reminiscent of Albert Lebourg's Parisian landscapes. Painting until his last breath, Andre-Leon Vivrel died in Bonneville-sur-Touques in 1976.
