Deeply influenced by his trip to the United States in 1950, Gromaire presents us with a historical painting that is strikingly relevant today. This monumental work – both in size and symbolic power – depicts men, women and children who have left everything behind, ready to embark on a journey for a better world. The presence of the lighthouse, a symbol of hope, is there to illuminate the future.

For Marcel Gromaire, an artist attuned to the world and his time, ‘art is social’. His works take on symbolic value, and each one a gift drawn from reality and observation.
Gromaire shows here that he has always been a simple and generous man, demanding and humanistic, qualities that are illustrated in this 1958 painting.

Finally, we remember Gromaire's intellectual influence, the ‘voice of independent art’, who was chosen to adorn the 1937 World Exhibition, the Palais de la Découverte, and, still today, the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, and museum collections with such great works.

"There are awards that honor artists,
and there are artists who honor awards: you are one of them."

From André Malraux, Minister of Culture,
to Marcel Gromaire, in 1959,
at the presentation of the National Arts Award