Despierre, Bathers, Circa. 1970

Jacques Despierre (1912-1995)

Son of painter Edmond Ceria, Jacques Despierre was introduced to painting at an early age. He began studying at the Académie Colarossi, then at the Académie Scandinave, where he followed the teaching of Charles Dufresne, who professed the need for structured architecture in the organization of the painting. Despierre entered Lucien Simon's studio at the Beaux-Arts in 1929. At the Louvre, he admired Chardin, Corot and Delacroix. At his father's request, Despierre took up engraving and illustrated his first book in 1930.

His friendships with Gruber, Tailleux, Tal Coat, Lasne, Brayer, Humblot and Rohner were synonymous with emulation. In the galleries, Despierre discovered Picasso, Bonnard and Matisse, then met and admired Jacques Villon, Charles Despiau and Marcel Gromaire. Thanks to the architect Jean-Charles Moreux, he discovers that "the surface is both a concrete and an abstract phenomenon", a subject he explores in greater depth when reading Mattila Ghycka.

His first exhibition takes place at Jeanne Castel in 1938, the year he wins the Prix Paul Guillaume. During and after the war, he produced decorative art works: painted furniture and tapestries for Jacques Adnet, frescoes for the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris, and then for the liners La Marseillaise and Ile de France in particular.

Despierre exhibited regularly at Galerie Charpentier, Galerie de l'Elysée, then at René Drouet and Marcel Guiot. Critics rave: Waldemar Georges, George Besson, Pierre Cabanne and Jean Bouret praise his work. In 1969, Despierre was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the following year, the Galerie de Paris devoted a show to his Loire views, Greek gardens and bathers. Seven years later, the Wildenstein Gallery exhibited a series of views of Greece and paintings of horses. Tributes were paid to him in 1973 at the Monnaie de Paris and then at Saint-Etienne. Present at numerous Salons, Despierre was a founding member of the Salon de Mai, to which he gave his name.

In the manner of Renaissance artists, Despierre liked to tackle all techniques: he produced murals and mosaics, illustrated books, designed cartoons for carpets and tapestries for the Mobilier National and vase decorations for Sèvres, created the stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame de Liesse and 80 medals for the Monnaie de Paris. Appreciated by young people and a teacher by nature, Despierre succeeds Gromaire as head of the mural art workshop at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, and introduces the teaching of fresco and mosaic.

His works are notably conserved at the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'art moderne de Paris, the Musée des Beaux-arts d'Orléans, the Musée de Grenoble, the Mobilier National at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Victoria & Albert Museum.