Jacques Thévenet (17 October 1891 – 5 April 1989) was a French painter and illustrator.[1]
Early life and education
Jacques Thévenet was born in Montquin, Dommartin township, Nièvre department, France (17 October 1891) in the family’s ancestral home, built by his great grand-father, Auguste Hugues Claude Thévenet, lawyer from Château-Chinon.
He had 3 sisters and lost his mother in 1895 when he was only four. His father Louis moved the family to Paris where he run a law practice.
Young Jacques studied at the Lycée Carnot and later attended the École de droit of the Sorbonne University. Simultaneously, he attended the Académie Julian, with several painters such as Amédée de la Patellière, Jean Crotti, Arthur Szyk.[a]
In 1912 he was deployed to Nancy for the military service and mobilized for service within the 11e division d’Infanterie/Division de fer to fight at the Great War after which he was awarded a medal and a petit galon d’or.
Interwar years
Thévenet and his father joined the Liberation celebrations in the Champs Elysées 11 November 1918. It was then when he discarded the idea of taking over his father’s law practice. "I was to the point of no return", he later recalled.
In 1919 he joined the workshop of interior designer Marcel Mathelin, where he learned new techniques and art forms such as ink, lithography, costume projects for theater and cinema, fashion sketches and shop displays.
In 1920 he married Marcel’s daughter, Paule, and the couple had two children: Renée (1921) and Pierre (1925). He became partner at his stepfather’s business.
In 1923 he worked with Abel Gance in the film "La roue".
In 1926 he traveled around Elbeuf, in Normandy, with writer André Maurois.
In 1927 art critic Robert Rey[b] wrote positively about Thévenet in the "Europe Nouvelle".
In May 1930 he visited writer Jean Giono in Manosque and the two became friends.
Marseille years
In 1932 he visited Marseille to attend his exhibition at the Pol Le Roy gallery. His friends Jean Giono, composer Arthur Honegger and his wife, concert pianist Andrée Vaurabourg, attended the exhibition which was a great success. So much so, he settled at a studio located at 12 Quai de Rive-Neuve, in the old port, where he stayed until 1942.[c]
Giono introduced him to writer and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol who shot the film Manon des Sources in Château-Chinon.
In 1936 he met poet, dramatist, and diplomat Paul Claudel in Marseille. The two became friends and Claudel visited Thévenet in Montquin in 1939. This year Thévenet fell ill and went to the Alps to convalescence. At this time, he made drawings to illustrate the Spanish Civil War.
In 1939 Giono wrote a positive review about him in Paris-Soir.
In February 1940 Paul Claudel exhibited Thévenet’s paintings at his Parisian flat,[e] which was a big success. All the paintings were sold.
While in Paris, his friend artist Othon Friesz introduced Thévenet to painter, sculptor and designer Henry de Waroquier, film director and writer André Heuzé, painter and interior designer Valdo Barbey, and interior designer Raymond Subes.
In 1940, Roger Allard introduced Thévenet to editors Guy Schoeller and young Robert Laffont.[f] Around this time, several personalities and collectors purchased paintings direct from Thévenet in his Marseille studio, namely: actor and entertainer Maurice Chevalier, painter Paul Signac, Prince Pierre de Monaco, and banker, writer, and filmmaker Philippe de Rothschild.
During the Parisoccupation he returned there for business only. The War marked a period of less artistic activity and higher introspection. Roger Allard dedicated one edition of his "Masters of tomorrow" series to Thévenet. In it, he wrote:
"Jacques Thévenet has painted hundreds of canvases, none of which is similar or meaningless because none is a lie or a pretension, and each one, with its own charm, has that family resemblance that distinguishes well-born painting. Jacques Thevenet's art is not that of a man in a hurry. His drawings have the easy way of conversation."
After World War II
After 1945 Thévenet was very active as a painter and an illustrator. He portrayed his friends Arthur Rubinstein, Jean Giono and Paul Claudel. He started spending four months in his ancestral home and the rest of the year in his Parisian studio.
In 1947 he traveled to Morocco and joined the "Groupe d’Émulation Artistique du Nivernais", and provided illustrations for the exhibition catalogues.
In 1951 he did the interior deco for businessman Charles Scheneider’s office.
In 1954 he started his collaboration with "Livre de Poche", to illustrate book covers.
In 1964, he was the guest of honor of the Société Creusotine des Beaux-Arts.
The Morvan
Later on in life, Thévenet became involved in the development of the arts in the Morvan. He helped to bring value to local painters which in the first half of the 20th century formed the School of Autun:
Albert Montmerot (Autun 1902 – Couches 1942)
Alice Grillot (Autun 1877–1969)
André Dulaurens (Autun 1918–1988)
Claude Pallot (Le Creusot 1901–1987)
Estelle Nectoux (Mesvres 1905 – Autun 1995)
Étienne de Martenne (Lyon 1868 – Paris 1920)
Jean Charlot (Bourges 1921 – Uchon 1970)
Louis Charlot (Cussy-en-Morvan 1878 – Uchon 1951)
Lucien Labille (Dracy-Saint-Loup 1887 – La Comelle 1944)
Writer Joseph Pasquet[g] invited him to the foundation of the "Académie du Morvan" 15 July 1967. The event took place in Château-Chinon and several personalities attended: statesman François Mitterrand, doctor and politician Léon Bondoux, law professor Jules Basdevan, historian, and archivist Régine Pernoud, writer, editor, and art critic Henri Perruchot, writer and journalist Joseph Bruley, writer and professor Jean Chatelain, businessman Louis-Philippe Bondoux, alongside the three directors: doctor and archaeologist Lucien Olivier, engineer Henri Desbruères and professor and linguist Claude Régnier.
In 1972, the library of Autun organized a tribute to him by presenting his works. His conference for the occasion resulted into "Un peintre du livre et ses modèles". Jean Séverin[h] wrote an article about him in the "Journal du Centre", a publication active in Nevers since 1944.
In 1973, the town of Château-Chinon dedicated one room of its museum to Jacques Thévenet. The "Journal du centre" published an article about him titled "The Morvan from the point of view of a painter"
In 1975, in an interview with Yvonne Carré, Thévenet described his love for the Morvan region: "I used to hear people say that the Morvan was not a nature for painters, that it lacked color, that all its land full of forests, all these fields surrounded by hedges, made it a dark country, with no warmth. But it is this very character that first attracted me."
In 1978 "Vivre en Bourgogne" published an interview with Thévenet by journalist Marcel Barbotte.
^He later alluded to this circumstance as an accidental passion. He passed by everyday and went in to see, prompted by curiosity.
^(Oran 1888 – Paris 1964) French art historian, museum curator, art critic and writer. He held several notable positions in the Paris art scene: Chief Curator of the National Museums, Director of Plastic Arts at the Department of Fine Arts, member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, professor at the École du Louvre and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. From 1922 until his death in 1964, he contributed to almost all French art reviews as well as to numerous magazines and published many books.
^Painter, designer and illustrator Alfred Lombard (Marseille 1884 – Toulon 1973) owned the studio in Marseille before him, and painter François Diana (Marseille 1903–1993) acquired it after World War II.
^To the question of why he liked Thévenet's paintings so much, he answered: "I cannot say anything about his paintings as they are there for you to see. I can only comment on Thévenet as a motorbike driver."
^Located at 4 Avenue Hoche, Paris; the building does not exist anymore.
Roger Allard: Les Maitres de Demain: Jacques Thévenet, Editions Sequana, 1943.
Jacques Thévenet: Un peintre et ses modèles, in La Revue des deux Mondes, no 6, 15 March 1966.
Jacques Thévenet: Cavalcade dans les collines, in Figaro littéraire, homage to Jean Giono, 19 to 25 October 1970.
Jacques Thévenet: Vents du Morvan, 1972.
Yvonne Carré: Rencontre avec Jacques Thévenet, Académie du Morvan, 2e Année Bulletin nº 3, 1975.
Richelieu-Drouot – Millon et Associés Auction Catalogue, in Paris, 8 December 1997.
Jean-Louis Balleret: Le Morvan vu par ses peintres, Acedémie du Morvan, Château-Chinon, 34e année, Bulletin nº 64, 2007, ISSN 0750-3385
Laurent Gaillard, Florence Amiel Rochette and Jean-Louis Charlot: Les peintres d'Autun 1900–1950, Une inspiration en Terre Autunoise, Somogy Éditions d'art, Paris 2017
