Jean-Louis Forain
Reims, Francia 1852 - Parigi, 1931
His painting is essentially taken live; often Forain wanders the streets and in the cafés-chantants and nothing escapes his incisive and scratchy pencil. His first solo exhibition was held in 1890 at the Galerie Boussod-Valadon, directed by Théo Van Gogh, on Boulevard Montmartre.
A pupil of Gérôme and Carpeaux at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he soon left to continue his studies in complete autonomy and independence, attending the Louvre and practicing the works of the great masters, especially Rembrandt. Encouraged by Carpeaux to draw for newspapers, he joined the circle of bohemian artists and writers, including Manet, Degas, Verlaine and Rimbaud. From 1876 he collaborated with "La Cravache"; in the following years he worked for the periodicals "Le Journal amusant", "Le Figaro", "L'Echo de Paris", "Le Courrier français". Thanks to this employment he frequented the most exclusive environments of Parisian society: the world of theater, entertainment, letters, noting with critical trait vices and virtues of the various characters, as Steinlen, Caran d'Ache and Toulouse-Lautrec already did.
It’s curious how a character who doesn’t hesitate to reveal the most intimate secrets of his contemporaries is so shy and jealous of his private life. He frequented the cafe of the "Nouvelle Athènes", located in Place Pigalle in Montmartre and was liked by all for the readiness of ingenuity, momentum and irony that characterize him. His work in the newspapers left him little time to paint, but he managed to exhibit at the official Salon, where he was admitted for the first time in 1884 and at the exhibitions of his Impressionist friends, for whom he had a strong admiration, in 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886.
His painting is essentially taken live; often Forain wanders the streets and in the cafés-chantants and nothing escapes his incisive and scratchy pencil. The world of opera ballet and unscrupulous young women provided him with numerous subjects for paintings with often dark, dark and sometimes monochrome tones. The great passion for dance, leads him to perform countless works in which he describes the female body in motion.
The world of entertainment is for him a privileged place of observation. Forain loves to walk behind the scenes, in the dressing rooms of dancers and actresses, listen to the conversations and see the attraction they have on admirers, often elderly, with whom they entertain at the end of the shows.
By painting scenes of this kind the artist denounces the social condition of these young women often forced to prostitute themselves in order to survive. The sharp contrast between the dark mass that represents the figure of the admirer and the fragile female silhouette clearly expresses the moral message.
Forain loves nightlife, loves to go out, his agenda is full of commitments: dances, dinners, evenings at the Jockey Club or the Cercle de L'Union Artistique.
At Maxim’s there’s always a table reserved for him. His friend Jacques-Emile Blanche, the worldly portrait painter par excellence, notes that if Forain manifests a certain curiosity for the "High life" it is only to express an undoubtedly critical judgment; his conversation is fraught with malice, but all is forgiven him for the extraordinary presence of spirit.
His first solo exhibition was held in 1890 at the Galerie Boussod-Valadon, directed by Théo Van Gogh, on Boulevard Montmartre.
In 1892, the financial political scandal of the Universal Society of the Interoceanic Canal of Panama, gave him the opportunity to observe and describe the corrupt businessmen and politicians involved in the affair and bring together these drawings in thematic albums: The Album Forain, La Commedia parisgina (1892); I Tempi difficili, Noi, voi, loro (1893); Dolce paese (1897).
Forain does not draw live but limits himself to write down on small notebooks (from which he never separates himself) the movements and attitudes of people, or fixes in the incredible visual memory all that is the object of his interest.
When the "Dreyfus" affair broke out in 1898, Forain and his friend Caran d'Ache founded the newspaper "Pss’t" to express their anti-Semitic views on the issue. He later founded "Le Fifre" and was a member of the Societé des Humoristes.
A convinced nationalist, defender of the French homeland and army, he deplored the abandonment of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, following the French defeat during the First World War. His personal patriotic battle culminates with the long series of illustrations about the conflict that, gathered in the album De la Marne au Rhin, are published by "Le Figaro".
After half a century of journalistic activity, in 1925, the artist sent his last drawing to "Le Figaro" to devote himself completely to painting. In 1932 he exhibited at the Salon de la Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Forain loves poetry very much; every morning and every evening he recites to his wife Jeanne the verses of his favorite poets, his friends, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire.
In 1995 the Fondation de l'Heremitage in Lausanne held an anthological exhibition and in 1996 the Galerie Hopkins-Thomas organised an important solo exhibition.
Museums:
Paris (Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmottan), Auvers-sur-Oise (Musée de l’Absinthe); Ottawa (National Gallery of Canada); St.Petersburg (Ermitage); London (National Gallery); Edimburg (Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums); San Francisco (Fine Arts Museum); Washington (National Gallery of Art); Rhode-Island (Museum of Art School of Design); Memphis (Museo Dixon).
Bibliography:
Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Catalogue officiel illustré, Salon 1932; B. Thomson, The Post-Impressionists, Oxford, Phaidon, 1983; B. Chavanne, B. Gaudichon, Catalogue Raisonné des peintures des XIX et XX siècle dans les collections du Musée de la Ville de Poitiers et de la Societé des Antiquaires de l’Ouest, 1988; T. Reef, F. Valdés-Forain, Jean-Louis Forain, The Impressionist Years, Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens Collection, 1995; Jean-Louis Forain, Les années impressionnistes et post-impressionnistes, Paris, La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1995; M.-C. Delahaye, B. Noël, Absinthe, muse des peintres, Paris, Les Editions de l’Amateur, 1999; Da Renoir a Picasso, un secolo d’arte al Petit Palais di Ginevra, a cura di Paola Gribaudo, Milano, Electa, 2001; Da Caillebotte a Picasso, I capolavori della collezione Oscar Ghez dal Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra a cura di L. Caramel, N. Sainte Fare Garnot, G. Gentry, Milano, Mazzotta, 2003
It’s curious how a character who doesn’t hesitate to reveal the most intimate secrets of his contemporaries is so shy and jealous of his private life. He frequented the cafe of the "Nouvelle Athènes", located in Place Pigalle in Montmartre and was liked by all for the readiness of ingenuity, momentum and irony that characterize him. His work in the newspapers left him little time to paint, but he managed to exhibit at the official Salon, where he was admitted for the first time in 1884 and at the exhibitions of his Impressionist friends, for whom he had a strong admiration, in 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886.
His painting is essentially taken live; often Forain wanders the streets and in the cafés-chantants and nothing escapes his incisive and scratchy pencil. The world of opera ballet and unscrupulous young women provided him with numerous subjects for paintings with often dark, dark and sometimes monochrome tones. The great passion for dance, leads him to perform countless works in which he describes the female body in motion.
The world of entertainment is for him a privileged place of observation. Forain loves to walk behind the scenes, in the dressing rooms of dancers and actresses, listen to the conversations and see the attraction they have on admirers, often elderly, with whom they entertain at the end of the shows.
By painting scenes of this kind the artist denounces the social condition of these young women often forced to prostitute themselves in order to survive. The sharp contrast between the dark mass that represents the figure of the admirer and the fragile female silhouette clearly expresses the moral message.
Forain loves nightlife, loves to go out, his agenda is full of commitments: dances, dinners, evenings at the Jockey Club or the Cercle de L'Union Artistique.
At Maxim’s there’s always a table reserved for him. His friend Jacques-Emile Blanche, the worldly portrait painter par excellence, notes that if Forain manifests a certain curiosity for the "High life" it is only to express an undoubtedly critical judgment; his conversation is fraught with malice, but all is forgiven him for the extraordinary presence of spirit.
His first solo exhibition was held in 1890 at the Galerie Boussod-Valadon, directed by Théo Van Gogh, on Boulevard Montmartre.
In 1892, the financial political scandal of the Universal Society of the Interoceanic Canal of Panama, gave him the opportunity to observe and describe the corrupt businessmen and politicians involved in the affair and bring together these drawings in thematic albums: The Album Forain, La Commedia parisgina (1892); I Tempi difficili, Noi, voi, loro (1893); Dolce paese (1897).
Forain does not draw live but limits himself to write down on small notebooks (from which he never separates himself) the movements and attitudes of people, or fixes in the incredible visual memory all that is the object of his interest.
When the "Dreyfus" affair broke out in 1898, Forain and his friend Caran d'Ache founded the newspaper "Pss’t" to express their anti-Semitic views on the issue. He later founded "Le Fifre" and was a member of the Societé des Humoristes.
A convinced nationalist, defender of the French homeland and army, he deplored the abandonment of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, following the French defeat during the First World War. His personal patriotic battle culminates with the long series of illustrations about the conflict that, gathered in the album De la Marne au Rhin, are published by "Le Figaro".
After half a century of journalistic activity, in 1925, the artist sent his last drawing to "Le Figaro" to devote himself completely to painting. In 1932 he exhibited at the Salon de la Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Forain loves poetry very much; every morning and every evening he recites to his wife Jeanne the verses of his favorite poets, his friends, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire.
In 1995 the Fondation de l'Heremitage in Lausanne held an anthological exhibition and in 1996 the Galerie Hopkins-Thomas organised an important solo exhibition.
Museums:
Paris (Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmottan), Auvers-sur-Oise (Musée de l’Absinthe); Ottawa (National Gallery of Canada); St.Petersburg (Ermitage); London (National Gallery); Edimburg (Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums); San Francisco (Fine Arts Museum); Washington (National Gallery of Art); Rhode-Island (Museum of Art School of Design); Memphis (Museo Dixon).
Bibliography:
Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Catalogue officiel illustré, Salon 1932; B. Thomson, The Post-Impressionists, Oxford, Phaidon, 1983; B. Chavanne, B. Gaudichon, Catalogue Raisonné des peintures des XIX et XX siècle dans les collections du Musée de la Ville de Poitiers et de la Societé des Antiquaires de l’Ouest, 1988; T. Reef, F. Valdés-Forain, Jean-Louis Forain, The Impressionist Years, Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens Collection, 1995; Jean-Louis Forain, Les années impressionnistes et post-impressionnistes, Paris, La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1995; M.-C. Delahaye, B. Noël, Absinthe, muse des peintres, Paris, Les Editions de l’Amateur, 1999; Da Renoir a Picasso, un secolo d’arte al Petit Palais di Ginevra, a cura di Paola Gribaudo, Milano, Electa, 2001; Da Caillebotte a Picasso, I capolavori della collezione Oscar Ghez dal Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra a cura di L. Caramel, N. Sainte Fare Garnot, G. Gentry, Milano, Mazzotta, 2003
