Bather - Adolphe Péterelle (1874-1947)

An oil on canvas measuring 61X50 cm (without the frame) representing a bather signed by Adolphe Péterelle (1874-1947)

Adolphe-Jules Péterelle is a French painter of Swiss origin born June 26, 1874 in Geneva and died October 27, 1947 (aged 73) in Paris.

Adolphe-Jules Péterelle was born on June 26, 1874 in Geneva, in the Eaux-Vives district. In 1875, his mother, Marceline, died. In 1881 his father entrusted him to one of his wife's sisters, a woman whom the child accompanied to religious services. In 1886, he decided to become a painter and therefore took courses at the Geneva School of Fine Arts from 1887 to 1891. In 1891, at the age of 17, he freed himself from the authority of his aunt and leaves Switzerland for Paris, whose artistic ferment fascinates him. He continues to paint, especially at night, and works as a decorator. In 1898, he was welcomed on rue Caulaincourt by the animal painter Henri Deluermoz, in his studio recently abandoned by Steinlen. After Deluermoz left for the provinces, Adolphe-Jules Péterelle settled at the Bateau-Lavoir in 1900, where he met Steinlen, Aristide Bruant and Picasso. From 1900 to 1904, he worked in the pottery decoration of Choisy-le-Roi where he met Émile Lenoble, who provided designs to the earthenware factory. A forty-year friendship will bind them. Around 1808 – 1809, he settled permanently in Cité Falguière. With the sculptor Joseph Bernard, he studied the theme of dance at length. If the painter has long been interested in the nude, in maternity, it is to better translate the inner light of the being, sometimes even its cosmic dimension, hidden under the carnal envelope. In 1914, Adolphe-Jules Péterelle joined the Foreign Legion and left for the front. He is naturalized French. In 1915, buried by a mine explosion in the Somme, he lost his sight and was sent to Saint-Brieuc where constant care allowed him to regain partial sight, but he lost an eye. Adolphe-Jules Péterelle returns to his workshop in the Falguière city. He gets married and has two children. A sandwich man by day, by night he constructs a poignant work: nudes, landscapes, flowers, dancers, moving crowds, ghosts of flesh and feeling vibrating with an ember fire. He gathered around him a circle of fans attracted by his work. In 1921, the first Peterelle exhibition at L’Encrier where its organizer Roger Dévigne, writer, installed his hand press. First article in the press. In 1926, an exhibition of his works was organized by a group of friends at the Le Petit Napolitain café in Paris; it arouses the admiration of certain intellectuals from the Left Bank. From then on, the painting dealers were alerted. One of them wants to acquire all the completed paintings in his workshop, but Peterelle refuses. In 1927, the sculptor François Pompon, who became his most intimate friend, acquired a Visage de femme, the art dealer Charron bought several hundred canvases over two years, paintings left for Switzerland and the United States, a first oil goes to Drouot. At the time of his exhibition at Galerie Bernheim (Paris, 1930), Péterelle was 56 years old. The sculptor Robert Wlérick created his portrait in bronze. He will remain his friend for life, as will Pierre Bonnard he met in 1932 who bought Le Tambourinaire. He frequented Kisling, Derain, Gromaire, Dufresne... Made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1938, Péterelle received important orders from the State. He is the subject of two exhibitions: one at the Galerie Charpentier, and the other at the Galerie de France.
Adolphe-Jules Péterelle died on October 27, 1947 in Paris, at the age of 73. Present in several museums in France (including the Center Pompidou)  and abroad (the Metropolitan in New York), he leaves the image of a discreet “modern master” whose work with musical and poetic nuances gives rise to a universe of intense emotion that we must know how to apprehend, understand and penetrate.