Artist Dr. Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière

 

Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière was born in Paris, France, on January 18th, 1916. From a young age he showed high intellectual giftedness and innate qualities towards science in its no-limit sense of Knowing, further stimulated by his access to an excellent library inherited through the generations by his family members of an old lineage. His gifts were perfected through of his extensive university studies, his knowledge in universal culture, in addition to his numerous experiences during his travels and international activities.

 

In art he chose painting as his medium. He developed and matured this before reaching the age of 12. In school although he had certain predispositions towards drawing, he inclined himself towards watercolours. Then for a few years he experimented with oil painting however he eventually returned back to watercolours, but in a peculiar way (with a technique that appeared to be oil painting) despite being under the control of Mr. Van der Stock, whom was an orthodox watercolour teacher, having conserved some of these rules even into the schools of drawing.

In the Belgium school of drawing he worked on the Ingres style.

 

In 1928 when he was 12, in a Europe-wide contest, he received the “Ernest Rousille” award, as the best student of Europe.

 

In 1929, in an art contest and exhibit, he did not get too much attention with his patiently painted classical art piece in the face of other works of a more subjective nature. However in the following year he presents a symbolic work and obtains the first prize.

 

Between 1930 and 1935 he practiced with charcol, tempera and gouache, but still in the form of “copying” portraits, landscapes, and objects.

 

It is not until 1937 that he breaks from “textbook” painting to move towards the subjective, abstract and symbolic works.

 

He was congratulated by the great dutch artist Reymacker for a series of twelve sanguine works. Dr. Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière then underwent a 10-year period of silence until 1949. Inspired in John Sell Cotman he works on a few paintings. In the same year he studies the Van Gogh collection present in New York. He copies the “Hospital at Saint-Rémy-de -Provence” and the “Provence Hill” and creates a few paintings in the Van Gogh style.

 

In his series of the twelve zodiac symbols that he completed later on, he presents objects of meditation with an emphasis more on the hue than the graphic symbol; they are like fantasy mandalas through which, as he himself asserted, “some people may open a path to the subjective world with a vision of the infinitely large towards a universal domain.”

 

He did not only dedicate himself to art but as well maintained an interest in science, medicine, yoga (since he was 20), didactics, philosophy and theology.

 

In psychology, he researched the relationships that existed between people and the cosmos. He as well researched ancient cultures and built an interest in linguistic studies. He as well inclined himself towards philosophy, medicine and the epistemology of life, examining all the theories without adhering to any.

 

From 1939 to 1941 he traveled to Northern Africa and the Middle East and from 1947 to 1953 he tirelessly traveled the five continents visiting 43 countries. After his visit to America and Asia, he stays in Australia for more than two years. Being universal in his concepts he then visits Mecca and Palestine.

 

Dr. Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière returns to Europe and establishes himself in Nice in the French Alpes-Maritimes, land of his ancestors, where he concluded his great works. In this period he is appointed to be part of the board of directors at the Institute of Archaeology and Prehistory of Nice.

 

He works on paintings of a different nature with multiple interconnected meanings as can be found in the teachings of various continents, various traditions, from the East to the West, for a time where values imply a synthesis and at the same time a syntagma. His creations touch upon multiple concepts with rich sensitivity, having all ideograms within the painting harmonize with one another and having the image itself as a new reality by its very existence, where every shape, colour stain and line can be distinguished, standing out from the background, contrasting with other forms, colours stains and lines. This allows us to see, sometimes in an imperceptible way, symbols and meanings of a secret revelation. Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière was declared by Claire Duda, Director of the Renoir Gallery of Nice, as an incomparable painter.

 

He established the F.I.S.S.- International Federation of Scientific Societies in Paris, 1947. In February, 1960, he renews the bylaws of the F.I.S.S. and moves the headquarters to Nice in Club l'Artistique (close to his residence in the Carabacel district), a famous art center of the 50's. Having chosen this as the headquarters was in accordance with his visionary proposal of uniting Science to Art in an epistemology of life for a greater understanding. He as well established today's Magna Fraternitas Universalis, a cultural and scientific institution dedicated to re-education.

 

Having established his projections for the World Institution, he passes away on December 27, 1962.

 

Within his enormous Curriculum Vitae we find various titles, officialities, medals, diplomas as an honorary member, commander, necklaces, aiguillettes, crosses, spurred knight recognitions and academic honours.

 

His highly outstanding work extended to all the facets of human life, from science to art, from philosophy to didactics, establishing beyond these a synthesis for the true wholeness of mankind. From his thought emerged great institutions such as the E.L.I.C. Foundation (Free Schools of Scientific Research for Children), founded his disciples Dr. David Juan Ferriz Olivares and María Nilda Cerf Arbulú, C.P.A., whom have worked for years in shaping childhood talent and organizing in Latin America every 2 years a world conference for childhood talent for peace.

 

On May 23rd, 1981 in Nice (France), an official tribute to Dr. Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière took place, where the French government officially inaugurated the Obelisk in his memory; a public monument in the East Cemetery (Cimetière de l'Est) by 4th street, the Sacred Forest Avenue with Columbarium Avenue.