Artist Spotlight: Czanara

Working both as a photographer and an illustrator, Raymond Carrance, under the pseudonym Czanara, created what was daring art for his time. Carrance, who lived from 1921-1998, was also responsible for illustrating with elaborate etchings and lithographs the works of Jules Renard and Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as an edition of Henry de Montherlant's 1951 gay classic La Ville dont Le Prince est un Enfant (The Land Whose King is a Child). In everything, Czanara brought a magical surrealistic style like contemporaries Paul Cadmus and Jared French.

Thanks to the wonderful blog www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/, and the many of the images sourced from Wessel +O'Connor Fine Art for this article.

Three men in surrealistic collage (12" x 17"). Colored pencil on paper. (Source: Elysium Press)

Paris, 1954 (Wessel + O'Connor)
ink on paper, 12 1/4 X 9 1/8", signed

Untitled, (Wessel + O'Connor)
colored pencil and gouache on paper, 13 3/4 x 9 1/2"

Pan, 1976

Composition
1960
May 4, 1953
pencil on paper, 12 5/8 X 9 3/4"

Sketches
(Wessel + O'Connor)

Illustrations from a 1967 edition of La Ville dont le prince est un enfant (The City Whose Prince is a Child), a 1955 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant. (Source: librairie-ancienne-lautre-monde.blogspot.com)

Illustrations from a 1967 edition ofLa Ville dont le prince est un enfant (The City Whose Prince is a Child), a 1955 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant. (Source: librairie-ancienne-lautre-monde.blogspot.com)

Illustrations from a 1967 edition ofLa Ville dont le prince est un enfant (The City Whose Prince is a Child), a 1955 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant. (Source: librairie-ancienne-lautre-monde.blogspot.com)

Illustrations from a 1967 edition ofLa Ville dont le prince est un enfant (The City Whose Prince is a Child), a 1955 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant. (Source: librairie-ancienne-lautre-monde.blogspot.com)

Illustrations from a 1967 edition ofLa Ville dont le prince est un enfant (The City Whose Prince is a Child), a 1955 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant. (Source: librairie-ancienne-lautre-monde.blogspot.com)