Duthoo, Bouquet Of Flowers, Circa 1945

Jacques Duthoo (1910-1960)
Bouquet of flowers, circa 1945
Oil on canvas
45 x 26 cm

Born in Tours in 1910, Jacques Duthoo chose to spend his entire life there, far from the controversies surrounding artistic events in the capital. An admirer of old masters, contemporary creation and the work of Georges Rouault with whom he regularly exchanges, he began painting as an autodidact at the age of 30. After starting out by painting still lifes and flowers, treated in full paste and of an expressionist character, like our Bouquet of Flowers, he discovered non-figurative painting. Two years later, Wilhelm Uhde, a German art collector and critic, acquired two paintings. Duthoo is beginning to attract critical interest.

His first exhibition took place in Paris in 1946 at Denise René alongside Serge Poliakoff. Duthoo exhibited throughout his life at the Salon de Mai and was the subject of numerous private exhibitions in Paris, Brussels and Switzerland. In 1948, he exhibited again at Denise René, this time alongside masters like Mondrian, Kandinsky, Vasarely and Sonia Delaunay.

In 1950, Duthoo discovered another form of expression, within the Graphies group; he took up engraving, and acquired a small press. Then he works with iron, ceramics and creates tapestry boxes. The twenty paintings exhibited by the Ariel gallery in 1959 were a great success with major collectors. This will be his last exhibition, some time before his premature death at the age of 50. Réalités Nouvelles, where he exhibited annually from 1950 to 1959, paid tribute to him and the Tours Museum devoted a retrospective to him in 1961. A new, larger retrospective took place at the Château de Tours in 2014.

His works are in the Art Museum modern art in Paris, at the Musée des beaux-arts du canton de Vaud, at the Musée de Tours and at the Harvard Art Museum.