Jean François Thomas (1894-1939) Portrait Of A Woman Entitled

Large watercolor depicting a woman with folded hands. Work entitled "reflection" and dated 1935, it is sold in a beautiful gilded frame and blue rechampi, granted to the edging of the mari-louise. Our watercolor is stained in its upper part and has a small lack at the top right (see photos). It is signed lower right: JF Thomas. JF Thomas was an artist whose style cut through daily suffering in the same way as his life. Jean François Thomas born December 15, 1894 in Guéméné Pentao (Loire-Atlantique), of a policeman father and a tailor mother. A pupil at the Prytané des Andelys in Normandy, he was seriously injured in the thorax during the Great War, then reformed in 1916, he will retain the aftereffects of this injury all his life and will maintain precarious health. He will then pursue studies in the fine arts of Bordeaux before spending a year in Nantes where he will teach. In 1917, he moved to Paris and acquired a workshop in Montmartre. It is the start of a difficult career. After 1920, he exhibited in many galleries, mainly Parisian. He befriended three painters: Roland Oudut, Raymond Legueult and Maurice Brianchon. In 1923, he exhibited with his friends forming the "Groupe du Portique". He enjoyed some success for a few years. The Nantes museum and several foreign museums buy paintings from him. In 1925, he participated in the execution of the Spring dome and in the Decorative Arts exhibition. He signed his first contract with the Georges Lévy-Alverez gallery and worked there from 1927 to 1929. In 1935, he exhibited at the Paul Louis Mergnier workshops as well as at the Mignon-massart gallery in Nantes. In 1936, he exhibited at the Moyon-Avenard gallery in Nantes, at the Paris gallery, at the Malesherbes art gallery and at the Carmine gallery. In 1937, the Ministry of National Education purchased one of his paintings. The world of the arts having been convinced of his talent, he was recognized as a "Little Master" of the interwar period. His work is diverse: watercolors, oil paintings, pastels, pen drawings and washes. Unfortunately his life seems to have been miserable because his painting hardly nourished him. Indeed, it is said that he ate so little and so badly that he contracted scurvy. Likewise, his extreme poverty combined with his passion for painting led him to cut the sheets of his bed to paint pictures. On January 15, 1939, exhausted, he died. He therefore did not have time to savor the fruit of the exhibition of his production at the Arts Club in Chicago, which began two days after his death. The same year a second exhibition was given in San Francisco. An Art critic of the time will say: "America will have discovered it before France". !!!! Dimensions: frame 93 cm X 74 cm watercolor 53 cm X 70.5 cm Shipping costs contact us.