Born on October 8 1920, Raymond Reynaud died from a stroke on July 10 2007, aged 86: only three days before the opening of a big retrospective of his work given by his native city, Salon-de-Provence, the birthplace of Nostradamus, south of Avignon. A former house painter who became a classic of French art singulier, Reynaud was not a self-taught artist and was proud to acknowledge his training in various art classes for gifted amateurs during the 1950s. He also founded an art workshop, the 'Quinconce vert', which became the Raymond Reynaud Movement in the 1990s and leaves a dozen disciples devoted to his cause. Working in series on popular themes like the circus or jazz bands, the four seasons or the seven capital sins, he later oriented his inspiration toward rather abstract symmetrical compositions that he named his Mandalas. Starting in 1978, he also created some strange assemblage sculptures made from driftwood and discarded objects. Painted with gouache on paper mounted on board, his two masterpieces are Jean de Florette (411 x 207 cm) and Don Quixote (600 x 320 cm), huge polyptychs inspired by the novels of Marcel Pagnol and Cervantes. Raymond Reynaud didn't like to sell his works, preferring to show them in his private home museum. A specially devised gallery should be opened soon in Salon to show his work permanently. A catalogue is available from: salon.culture@wanadoo.fr