The Navy Guys By Jim Sévellec - Manufacture Henriot - Brittany

Henriot manufacture in polychrome earthenware, circa 1930. Restoration on the neck of the man in the middle. Height 22 cm, width 26 cm.

Eugène Sévellec, known as Jim Sévellec (1897-1971) 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 backgrounds. We will mention 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 an artistic training with Louis-Marie Désiré-Lucas. During the First World War, he was mobilized in 1916 in the infantry and served, among other things, as an interpreter for American and Scottish soldiers. This is how his companions gave him his artist first name "Jim", easier to pronounce than that of Eugène. Released from his military obligations, he followed the teaching of the PTT school and at the same time frequented Parisian artistic circles. In 1924 he was appointed to the surveillance of submarine cables in Brest, it was the 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 the local artistic life, he was a professor at the School of Fine Arts in Brest without ceasing his activity at the PTT. Jim Sévellec began his collaboration in 1928 with the Manufacture Henriot in Quimper. From this date, without ever stopping painting, Jim Sévellec gave many models to the Henriot publishing house. In 1936, at the same time as René-Yves Creston, he was appointed painter of the Navy. For the Tanguy Tower museum, he restored the past of the city of Brest through dioramas. We also owe him several decorative sets for hotels and restaurants in Brest, Camaret and Dinard.