Ashtray “les Gas De La Marine” By Jim Sévellec (1897 - 1971), Henriot Factory, Brittany

Manufacture Henriot, polychrome earthenware, circa 1930. Height 10 cm, width 14 cm.

Eugene Sévellec (1897 - 1971), known as Jim Sévellec, was born and raised in Camaret-sur-Mer, the son of a state sailor. Two elements encouraged 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. Very young 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 he served, among other things, as an interpreter for American and Scottish soldiers. This is how his companions gave him his artist's first name "Jim", easier to pronounce than 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 monitor submarine cables in Brest, it was his return home and the beginning of a rich and abundant artistic activity. He created an artistic group with friends called "La phalange bretonne", he exhibited at the Galerie Saluden in Brest. Well established in local artistic life, he was 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 Manufacture Henriot in Quimper. From this date, without ever ceasing to paint, 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. He is also responsible for several decorative ensembles for hotels and restaurants in Brest, Camaret and Dinard.