Little Girls Reading On A Wall By Jim Sévellec - Manufacture Henriot - Brittany

Manufacture Henriot. Polychrome earthenware. Circa 1930. A lack of coverage on the red bow at the back of the restored piece. Height 21 cm, width 23 cm.

Eugène Sévellec (1897-1971), known as Jim Sévellec, was born and raised in Camaret-sur-Mer, the son of a state sailor. Two elements favored his artistic vocation: his father who encouraged him in the freedom of his aesthetic expression, and Camaret which was then a place of confluence of artists from various horizons. We will cite the writer Saint-Pol-Roux but also in the pictorial field Charles Cottet, Robert Antral. At a very young age he drew the life of the port and under the influence of Saint-Pol-Roux he left for Paris, in order to follow artistic training with Louis-Marie Désiré-Lucas. During the First World War, he was drafted into the infantry in 1916 and served, among other things, as an interpreter for American and Scottish soldiers. This is how his companions gave him his artistic first name “Jim”, easier to pronounce than that of Eugène. Freed from his military obligations, he studied at the PTT school and at the same time frequented Parisian artistic circles. In 1924 he was appointed to supervise the submarine cables in Brest, his return to the country and the beginning of a rich and abundant artistic activity. He created with friends an artistic group called "La phalange bretonne", he exhibited at the Galerie Saluden in Brest. Well established in local artistic life, he is a professor at the Brest School of Fine Arts without ceasing his activity at the PTT. Jim Sévellec began his collaboration in 1928 with the Henriot Manufacture in Quimper. From this date, without ever stopping painting, Jim Sévellec published numerous models at Henriot. In 1936, at the same time as René-Yves Creston, he was appointed painter to the Navy. For the Tanguy Tower museum, it recreates the past of the city of Brest through dioramas. We also owe him several decorative sets for hotel-restaurants in Brest, Camaret and Dinard.