Jean Berque (1896-1954) Toulon Harbor In 1927

The delicate and free touch of the Nabis painters of whom he was a student and soft and pastel colors reminiscent of Albert Marquet for this plunging view of the Toulon Harbor by the Champagne artist Jean Berque. The work is made in oil on canvas, it is offered in a modern matte black American box type frame which measures 45.5 cm by 68.5 cm and 38 cm by 61 cm for the canvas alone. In good condition, it is located on the back on the frame, and signed and dated (19)27 lower left. A subtle work, full of sweetness and poetry.

Born in Reims on January 31, 1896, died in Paris, rue de Seine, on April 27, 1954. Son of a Champagne wine owner, Jean Berque, student of Nabis, Félix Vallotton, Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, was one of the first members of the Rémoise Union of Decorative Arts. He created the Stations of the Cross for the Saint-Nicaise church in Reims. Renowned for his nudes, he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from 1924 to 1928 and at the Salon des Tuileries between 1927 and 1934. He is best known as a book illustrator and collaborated with François-Louis Schmied, Philippe Gonin and the Gonin brothers, of Lausanne. He notably illustrated works by André Gide, Pierre Louÿs, Colette, Montherlant, André Maurois, Paul Claudel, Anna de Noailles and Paul-Jean Toulet, as well as Le Cantique des Cantiques. The illustration of the book of poems Vers Toi, signed Claude Ramboz, published by Philippe Gonin in 1935, contains more than fifty original gouaches of female nudes. He married Raymonde Thorel, from Épernay, in Paris in 1920, then, in 1943, Germaine Kohn. Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1953, he rests in La Celle-Saint-Cloud (Yvelines).