Jean-gaston Mantel (1914 – 1995), “women At The Source”

Jean-Gaston MANTEL (1914 – 1995), “Women at the source”

Oil on canvas mounted on medium, signed lower right and dated 68
Format: 101 x 30 cm (with frame: 102.5 x 32.5 cm )

Jean-Gaston MANTEL (1914 – 1995). He was born in Amiens in 1914 and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1936, he obtained the prize of the National Society of Fine Arts and left for Morocco. He settled in Rabat where he met the painter Mattéo Brondy (1866-1944). The latter, a veterinarian by profession but also a student at the Académie Julian in Paris, is based in Meknes. He founded with other artists an artistic society called the Association of French Painters and Sculptors of Morocco. He welcomes Mantel in artistic residence; the latter specializes in paintings of horses. After returning to France during the Second World War, Mantel obtained a professorship in Rabat in 1946. He was then asked to promote Moroccan tourism, both in the production of posters and for the decorations of hotels and other buildings. administrative and tourist offices of Rabat. His favorite themes are traditional Moroccan festivals, fantasias, Kasbahs and other scenes of oriental daily life. He gives a particular originality to his work by treating perspective in an unexpected way. At the end of his life, he moved to Villefranche sur Mer where he devoted his latest creations.