Three Sailors On The Side - Jim Sévellec - Manufacture Henriot - Brittany

Polychrome earthenware, circa 1930.
Restoration of a crack under the arm of the sailor of the royal.
Jim Sévellec (1897 - 1971):
Eugène Sévellec, known as Jim Sévellec was born and raised in Camaret-sur-Mer, 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 diverse horizons. 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 to pursue 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 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 scene, he was a professor at the Brest School of Fine Arts, while continuing his work at the PTT. Jim Sévellec began his collaboration in 1928 with the Manufacture Henriot in Quimper. From that date on, without ever ceasing to paint, Jim Sévellec provided numerous models for publication at Henriot. In 1936, at the same time as René-Yves Creston, he was appointed painter to the Navy. For the Tanguy Tower Museum, he recreated the city of Brest's past through dioramas. He is also responsible for several decorative ensembles for hotel-restaurants in Brest, Camaret, and Dinard.