Jacques Charles Derrey (1907-1975) Portrait Of Dr R. Lenoir Medicine

Jacques Charles DERREY
(Toulouse 1907 – Paris 1975)
Portrait of Dr R. Lenoir
Oil on canvas
H. 91 cm; L. 72 cm
Signed, located and dated top right - Paris 1929

Exhibition: 1930, Salon des Artistes Français

Grandson of the curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes, Félix Pommier, the young Jacques Derrey spent his childhood between the picture rails and the banks of the Loire where he arrived in 1914. After brilliant studies and a stint at the Beaux-Arts de la Ville, Derey joined Paris and the workshops of Lucien Simon and Louis Roger in 1930. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from the previous year and quickly won major distinctions. In 1934 the Blumenthal Prize and in 1936 the first Grand Prix de Rome for intaglio engraving. He therefore left the following year for the Villa Medici. His professional career was that of a drawing teacher. He lived in Valenciennes from 1956 to 1956 and then joined the École Polytechnique where he taught until his retirement in 1973. After his death two years later, several retrospective exhibitions took place across France. In Pau in 1997/98 since he had a house in the Aspe valley, in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer in 2012 where he also had a house left to him by his grandfather, without forgetting Pénestin in 2004, the Taylor Foundation in 1992 and Valenciennes in 1988.

Our painting is located at the crossroads of Derrey's career, at the end of his life in Nantes and his beginnings in Paris. Moreover, this painting produced in 1929 was exhibited at the Salon of 1930. Mr. R. Lenoir, who is shown smiling, seems to be in his early thirties, and most certainly a doctor according to “La Presse Médicale” placed on his desk. Our investigation led us to two Doctor Robert Lenoir whose ages could correspond, but the photos of these men allowed us to conclude that they were false leads.