Astrée Lhermitte-Soka is a painter. Not an actress, not a columnist, not a socialite. Daughter of Thierry Lhermitte, she has forged an artistic path distant from cinema and television studios. Her painting, organized into long-term thematic series, tells a patient and personal journey, far from the spotlight of French cinema.
Astrée Lhermitte’s pictorial series: a unique working method
What sets Astrée Lhermitte-Soka’s work apart from many contemporary artists is her method of creating in series. Rather than producing isolated canvases, she develops coherent sets, each with a title and a narrative intention.
Among these series, Otom Potom is a long-term project that started over fifteen years ago. The expression, borrowed from Serbo-Croatian, serves as both a playful and enigmatic formula. Art critic Axelle Corty describes this painting as an art “that plays with words and pains, speaks of life and its wounds.” Behind the light appearance, the canvases address the passage of time and a form of existential vertigo.
Other series complement this universe: Doux-soeur, Les robes porte-bonheur, Hexagone exigu. Each set combines painting, intimate narrative, and reflection on language. The titles themselves (Les quatre coings d’un monde, Treize lunes et autant de savonnettes à l’iréos) reveal a pronounced taste for wordplay, embraced absurdity, and literary references, notably to the writer Cesare Pavese.
This serial approach gives her work a depth that the simple viewing of an isolated canvas does not always allow one to grasp. You can learn more about Astrée Lhermitte on Véron to explore the timeline of her achievements.
Training in the United States and a shift towards painting
Before becoming a painter, Astrée Lhermitte-Soka followed a path that took her far from France. She studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, where she earned degrees in graphic design and illustration. This experience at a renowned American school allowed her to train in an environment distant from family influence.
After her studies, she lived several years in New York, where she worked as a graphic designer. Why leave a stable job in graphic design to dedicate herself to painting? The answer involves an intermediate step rarely mentioned.
From film makeup to canvas
Astrée initially worked as a makeup artist for film. This profession, at the crossroads of technique and visual creation, serves as a logical bridge between graphic design and painting. The transition to painting was not a sudden leap but a progression through different forms of visual expression.
Upon returning to France, she fully oriented herself towards painting. Her personal website exclusively showcases her artistic work, without highlighting her lineage with Thierry Lhermitte. This choice of communication is revealing: the artist wants to exist through her canvases.
Astrée Lhermitte and the family artistic legacy
One cannot speak of Astrée Lhermitte-Soka without mentioning her family, but doing so accurately requires going beyond the simple angle of “daughter of.” Her father, Thierry Lhermitte, is one of the most well-known actors in French cinema. Her mother, Hélène Aubert, has always lived in relative discretion. Astrée grew up alongside her brother Victor and her sister Louise, known as Lonny.
Have you ever noticed that the children of public figures are often presented solely through the parental lens? In Astrée’s case, lineage is a context, not an explanation of her artistic approach. Her paternal great-grandfather, neurologist and psychiatrist Jean Lhermitte, and further back in the family tree, painter Léon Lhermitte, place the family within a tradition where art and science coexist.
Thierry Lhermitte himself has publicly spoken about his daughter’s work with admiration. In an interview, he noted that his image as a comedic actor does not summarize his personality, and that his children’s paths belong entirely to them.
Recognizing the work of an independent painter in France
Astrée Lhermitte-Soka’s journey illustrates a concrete reality of the contemporary art world in France. Building a career as a painter outside mainstream media circuits requires time and a form of resistance to easy visibility.
Several elements characterize her approach:
- A structured body of work in thematic series over several years, with Otom Potom as the central project for over fifteen years
- A solid international training (graphic design, illustration, film makeup) that nourishes her pictorial practice
- A deliberate erasure of the family link in her artistic communication, favoring the presentation of her works
- Titles of works that blend wordplay, literary references, and personal reflection
This positioning is not accidental. It reflects a desire to make painting exist on its own, without biographical crutches.
An artist to follow over time
The fact that Astrée Lhermitte-Soka has maintained a pictorial series for over fifteen years shows a rare consistency. This is not a one-off project launched to accompany an event or an exhibition. It is a deep artistic commitment, with its own narrative and visual codes.
Her painting, described as “less light than it seems” by Axelle Corty, deserves to be viewed outside the familial filter. The canvases speak for themselves, balancing humor and gravity, absurdity and intimacy. The work of Astrée Lhermitte-Soka stands out for its formal coherence and duration, two qualities that justify taking an interest in it beyond the name.
