Series Of 6 Portraits Of African Warriors - 1959 - Gouache On Canvas - Jean Poulain -

Set of 6 gouache paintings on canvas: African Warriors. ARTIST: Jean POULAIN (1884-1967) TECHNIQUE: Gouache on canvas PERIOD: 1959 DIMENSIONS of each canvas: 43cm x 51cm NUMBER OF WORKS: 6 Original works signed lower right. Jean Poulain, artist, explorer, and traveler. Jean Poulain was born in 1884 in Katanga (region of the former Belgian Congo), the son of a mining engineer during the reign of Leopold II. A self-taught artist, from a very young age he sought out all the emotions and beauty of Africa. His love and passion for drawing were incredible. Over the years, drawing became for him a form of expression that nothing could stop. In 1904, he decided to leave his family home to sketch and discover the wonders of Africa. He explored the entire territory of the Congo, which was still the property of King Leopold II of Belgium. In 1912, he set off to discover the African continent. He traveled back and forth between his passion for these different African countries and his family home in Katanga. During his travels, he met his future wife, the daughter of a copper mine owner. They married in 1917. This marked a turning point in his life. Thanks to the support of his father-in-law, all of Africa opened up to him. He became an insatiable observer, sketching and drawing every nook and cranny of his short trips across the African continent. From 1920 onward, he established himself as a painter and especially as an animal illustrator. He and his wife then set out in search of the large animals of the savannah, capturing their most lifelike poses. Together, they traveled extensively across vast countries and regions of Africa, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ethiopia, South Africa, and many others. Through these journeys, and thanks to his curiosity and humanism, he encountered tribes and secretive clans. However, possessing great compassion, he preferred to keep the locations he visited secret, in order to protect them from civilization. His travels resulted in numerous drawings and sketches, in which he attempted to capture the animal world and, moreover, the tribal universe of Africa. In the years 1935-1940, upon returning from his expeditions, he created many drawings and sketches based on his sketchbooks and photographs. He savored these memories in his studio, transcribing his emotions onto canvas and paper. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, he produced several thousand drawings and sketches, as well as about a hundred paintings, throughout his life. He died in 1967, leaving no heirs but the enduring pleasure of his work. Following the conflict in Congo at that time, which was raging over the country's independence, and after her husband's death, his wife gathered a large portion of his collection and repatriated it to Belgium. She passed away in 1973. For nearly 30 years, Jean Poulain's talent and works remained forgotten. A great-nephew inherited them, unaware of his ancestor's talent. Fortunately, since 2002, Jean Poulain's talent has been recognized in the art and antiques market, establishing him as an undeniably skilled and talented artist in the fields of animal and African art.