Jean-Claude Fourneau
Encyclopedia
Jean-Claude Fourneau was a French
painter close to the surrealist movement.
His mother was a descendant of Victor de Lanneau, founder of the college of Sainte Barbe in Paris, of Juliette Adam
, founder of a French paper, La Nouvelle Revue, muse of Léon Gambetta
and the spiritual mother of Pierre Loti
; and she was the daughter of Paul Segond
, pioneer in the field of surgical gynaecology.
His father, Ernest Fourneau
, was the founder of French medicinal chemistry
.
in 1932. He continued exhibiting there until 1948.
Claude Roger-Marx
sees his use of drawing as a medium and appreciates their detail: "The detail in Jean-Claude Fourneau's drawings gives us a sense of the infinite (...) Fascinating in the power and sensitivity that every stroke of his brush conveys." For the literary character of his work, the critic quotes the artist himself: "I cannot conceive of a man painting who has no culture. I do not distinguish between painting and poetry, they both strive towards the same goal."
Fourneau then specialises in portraits and builds himself a solid reputation. Oriane de La Panouse, the countess of Paris, the Harcourt
, Brantes, Faucigny-Lucinge, Seillière, Broglie, Pourtalès, Maillé, Montesquiou
, Wendel
families figure amongst his clients.
An intimate circle of people support his work leading François Pluchart
to state in the review Combat
during the André Weil Gallery show in 1963: "The Parisian fashion and intellectual circle has found its painter".
During the year of 1961, he interprets the role of the bishop Cauchon
in Robert Bresson
's The Trial of Joan of Arc.
A show in Casablanca
in 1954, made him known in Morocco
where he lived for several years. He painted the portraits of Lalla Malika, the sister of King Hassan II, of Lalla Lamia, his step sister, of Karim Lamrani
, his prime minister, of General Oufkir
and other members of the Moroccan Royal Court.
Claude Rivière states that Fourneau is the opposite of being a fashionable painter: "A great admirer of Antonin Artaud
, of Paulhan
, of Aragon
, the artist calls upon his understanding of his model and goes beyond just a formal expression to impose his point of view."
Jean Paulhan asks himself: "By what secret, Jean-Claude Fourneau possesses such prolific fierceness?".
Jean-Claude Fourneau appears on a photograph of surrealist artists gathered at the Café Cyrano in 1953, and André Breton
mentions him as being part of the group.
André Breton was a form of tutor to Fourneau, for whom he had a lot of affection and confirmed the influence of surrealism in its literary and artistic form in his work.
Fourneau wrote to André Breton at his address, rue Fontaine, in 1954 to try to temper the case of Story of O
, of which he was a fervent defender, with the representation of the subliminal woman in , an essay by Breton.
As if 'untempered love', 'elected love' could not find any better unravelling as in the paradox of opposites, pleasure against pain, violence against tenderness, free adult relations against faithfulness, strength against weakness...
On his return to Paris in 1968, Jean-Claude Fourneau pursues portrait painting and his last exhibition is held in 1976.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
painter close to the surrealist movement.
His mother was a descendant of Victor de Lanneau, founder of the college of Sainte Barbe in Paris, of Juliette Adam
Juliette Adam
Juliette Adam Juliette Adam Juliette Adam (4 October 1836, Verberie (Oise) – 23 August 1936, Callian (Var), also known by her maiden name Juliette Lambert, was a French author and feminist.- Biography :...
, founder of a French paper, La Nouvelle Revue, muse of Léon Gambetta
Léon Gambetta
Léon Gambetta was a French statesman prominent after the Franco-Prussian War.-Youth and education:He is said to have inherited his vigour and eloquence from his father, a Genovese grocer who had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie. At the age of fifteen, Gambetta lost the sight of his right eye...
and the spiritual mother of Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At the age of seventeen he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906...
; and she was the daughter of Paul Segond
Paul Segond
Paul Ferdinand Segond was a French surgeon who was a founder of obstetrics and the teaching of gynaecology in Paris. He was also an expert on the knee and described the eponymous Segond fracture.- Biography :...
, pioneer in the field of surgical gynaecology.
His father, Ernest Fourneau
Ernest Fourneau
Ernest Fourneau was a French medicinal chemist, who played a major role in the discovery of synthetic local anesthetics, as well as in the synthesis of suramin...
, was the founder of French medicinal chemistry
Medicinal chemistry
Medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry are disciplines at the intersection of chemistry, especially synthetic organic chemistry, and pharmacology and various other biological specialties, where it is involved with design, chemical synthesis and development for market of pharmaceutical...
.
Biography
Draughtsman and painter imbued with classicism and surrealism, Jean-Claude Fourneau is first noticed at his show at the Jeanne Castel Gallery by André SalmonAndré Salmon
André Salmon was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the defenders of cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal.-Biography:Andre Salmon was born in Paris...
in 1932. He continued exhibiting there until 1948.
Claude Roger-Marx
Claude Roger-Marx
Claude Roger-Marx , was a French writer, and playwright, as well as an art critic and art historian like his father Roger Marx...
sees his use of drawing as a medium and appreciates their detail: "The detail in Jean-Claude Fourneau's drawings gives us a sense of the infinite (...) Fascinating in the power and sensitivity that every stroke of his brush conveys." For the literary character of his work, the critic quotes the artist himself: "I cannot conceive of a man painting who has no culture. I do not distinguish between painting and poetry, they both strive towards the same goal."
Fourneau then specialises in portraits and builds himself a solid reputation. Oriane de La Panouse, the countess of Paris, the Harcourt
House of Harcourt
The House of Harcourt is a Norman family, descended from the Viking Bernard the Dane and named after its seigneurie of Harcourt in Normandy. Its mottos were "Gesta verbis praeveniant" , "Gesta verbis praevenient" , and "Le bon temps viendra .....
, Brantes, Faucigny-Lucinge, Seillière, Broglie, Pourtalès, Maillé, Montesquiou
Montesquiou family
The House of Montesquiou is the main branch of the Fezensac family, itself being a cadet branch of the House of Gascony. It is one of oldest aristocratic families in Europe....
, Wendel
De Wendel family
The de Wendel Family is an industrialist family from Lorraine, France.In the 19th and 20th centuries the family gained might both industrial and political...
families figure amongst his clients.
An intimate circle of people support his work leading François Pluchart
François Pluchart
François Pluchart was a French art critic an a journalist.He was one of the theorists of Body art in France, with artists like Michel Journiac and Gina Pane and founded the art journal ArTitudes....
to state in the review Combat
Combat (newspaper)
Combat was a French newspaper created during the Second World War. Originally a clandestine newspaper of the Resistance, it was headed by Albert Ollivier, Jean Bloch-Michel, Georges Altschuler and, most of all, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, Emmanuel Mounier, and then Raymond Aron...
during the André Weil Gallery show in 1963: "The Parisian fashion and intellectual circle has found its painter".
During the year of 1961, he interprets the role of the bishop Cauchon
Pierre Cauchon
Pierre Cauchon , bishop of Beauvais. A strong partisan of English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War, his role in arranging Joan of Arc's downfall led most subsequent observers to condemn his extension of secular politics into an ecclesiastical trial...
in Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
's The Trial of Joan of Arc.
A show in Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...
in 1954, made him known in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
where he lived for several years. He painted the portraits of Lalla Malika, the sister of King Hassan II, of Lalla Lamia, his step sister, of Karim Lamrani
Mohammed Karim Lamrani
Mohammed Karim Lamrani was the Prime Minister of Morocco three times; between August 6, 1971 and November 2, 1972, then between November 30, 1983 and September 30, 1986 and later on between August 11, 1992 and May 25, 1994. He was born in Fes....
, his prime minister, of General Oufkir
Mohamed Oufkir
General Mohammad Oufkir was a Moroccan Berber politician.As the right hand man of king Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Oufkir led government supervision of politicians, unionists and the religious establishment...
and other members of the Moroccan Royal Court.
Claude Rivière states that Fourneau is the opposite of being a fashionable painter: "A great admirer of Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
, of Paulhan
Jean Paulhan
Jean Paulhan was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member of the Académie Française...
, of Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, the artist calls upon his understanding of his model and goes beyond just a formal expression to impose his point of view."
Jean Paulhan asks himself: "By what secret, Jean-Claude Fourneau possesses such prolific fierceness?".
Jean-Claude Fourneau appears on a photograph of surrealist artists gathered at the Café Cyrano in 1953, and André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
mentions him as being part of the group.
André Breton was a form of tutor to Fourneau, for whom he had a lot of affection and confirmed the influence of surrealism in its literary and artistic form in his work.
Fourneau wrote to André Breton at his address, rue Fontaine, in 1954 to try to temper the case of Story of O
Story of O
Story of O is an erotic novel published in 1954 about love, dominance and submission by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage.Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication...
, of which he was a fervent defender, with the representation of the subliminal woman in , an essay by Breton.
As if 'untempered love', 'elected love' could not find any better unravelling as in the paradox of opposites, pleasure against pain, violence against tenderness, free adult relations against faithfulness, strength against weakness...
On his return to Paris in 1968, Jean-Claude Fourneau pursues portrait painting and his last exhibition is held in 1976.
Work
- Portrait of Andrée Seillière, oil on canvas, 1942 (coll. Andrée Jaigu)
- Portrait of Josée de Chambrun, oil on canvas, 1947 (coll. Josée and René de Chambrun FoundationJosée and René de Chambrun FoundationThe Josée and René de Chambrun Foundation is a non-profit charitable foundation based in Paris, France.Recognized by the French government as a nonprofit organization on October 19, 1959, the Foundation was founded by René de Chambrun , a lawyer at the Court of Appeals of Paris and of the New York...
) - Portrait of Felix YusupovFelix YusupovPrince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston , was best known for participating in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, the faith healer who was said to have influenced decisions of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.-Biography:...
, oil on canvas, 1951 (coll. Fourneau) - Portrait of Agnès BourgoisAgnès b.agnès b. is a French fashion designer. She is known for her self-named brand, which includes fashion and film interests.-Life and early career:...
, oil on plywood, 1953 (coll. Fondation Agnès Troublé, dite agnès b.) - Portrait of Général CatrouxGeorges CatrouxGeorges Catroux was a French Army general and diplomat who served in both World War I and World War II, and served as Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur from 1954 to 1969.-Biography:...
, oil on canvas, 1955 (coll. Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneurMaison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneurThe maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur were the French secondary schools set up by Napoleon and originally meant for the education of girls whose father, grandfather or great-grandfather had been awarded the Légion d'honneur...
, Saint-DenisSaint-DenisSaint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....
) - Portrait of Céleste Albaret, oil on canvas, 1957 (coll. Fourneau)
- Portrait of Lalla Malika du Maroc, oil on canvas, 1958 (coll. Palais royal du Maroc)
- Portrait of Jeanne-Marie de Broglie, oil on canvas, 1958 (coll. J.-M. de Broglie)
- Portrait of Jean PaulhanJean PaulhanJean Paulhan was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member of the Académie Française...
, oil on plywood, 1964 (coll. Jacqueline Paulhan) - Portrait of Dominique Aury, oil on Isorel, 1965 (coll. Fourneau)
- Portrait of Diane de FranceDiane, Duchess of WürttembergDiane, Duchess of Württemberg is a successful artist and sculptor.-Marriage:...
, oil on plywood (coll. Diane de Würtemberg) - Portrait of Karl de WürtembergCarl, Duke of WürttembergCarl, Duke of Württemberg is the current Head of the House of Württemberg.-Heir to House of Württemberg:...
, oil on canvas (coll. Karl de Würtemberg) - Portrait of Anne-Aymone Giscard d’EstaingAnne-Aymone Sauvage de BrantesAnne-Aymone Marie Josèphe Christiane Sauvage de Brantès is the wife of former President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.-Biography:...
, oil on canvas, 1969 (coll. A.-A. Giscard d’Estaing)
External links
- Jean-Claude Fourneau.
- « Notes et Carnets de Jean-Claude Fourneau », Ironie, n° 142, November 2009.