Sigismond Jeanès (1863-1939) - Indiscretion, Faun And Nymph, Circa 1900

Sigismond Jeanès (1863-1939)
Indiscrétion, Faune Et Nymphe, Circa 1900
Oil on parquet panel
33 x 41 cm
Signed lower left and titled on a label on the reverse
Wear in the lower lower part

Jean‑Sigismond Jeanès, painter of landscapes and watercolourist, was an autodidact who formed himself by copying the canvases of the great masters in Italy. He first worked as a collaborator with Art Nouveau artists in Nancy, his hometown, and then traveled extensively in Europe, but also in India and China. This is why he exhibited only from 1906, at the Salon d'Automne, then at the Société des Artistes Indépendants. On the strength of his success, he donated two important tapestry cartoons for Aubusson in 1925. Two of his works, "Un Soleil couchant" and "Les Arbres à Puteaux", are respectively kept at the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre Museum. The artist mainly painted landscapes in watercolor and tempera, of Venice, the Alps and the Dolomites, his place of residence and one of his favorite subjects. An excerpt from “L'art et les artistes” about the 3rd exhibition of the Modern Society (Galerie Durand-Ruel) in which Jeanès took part, appears as a true manifesto of this painting: “So, he painted for a moment. But, in painting this moment, he finds a way to give it, by dint of subtle observation, something permanent and general that satisfies. His very sure tact as a born artist makes him guess first which of the moments to choose… There is always one where the spectacle presents itself with its greatest force of emotion, with its most vivid beauty. MrJeanès intervenes at this moment: his very refined art and science do the rest. We sometimes say visionary: he is so only of reality. And he knows what gap still separates him, even in his most sparkling works, from having rendered the audacity of nature. He suggests them and it is already very beautiful. (Cf. Art and Artists, 7th year, n°73, April 1911)