Bertholle, Interior And Riders, 1983, Watercolour And Ink

Jean Bertholle (1909-1996)

Interior and riders, 1983
Watercolor and ink on paper
Signed and dated lower left
37 x 27.5 cm

Jean Bertholle (1909-1996)

Born in Dijon in 1909, Jean Bertholle began painting in 1924 and entered the Beaux- Arts de Saint-Etienne in 1928. The Manet exhibition at the Orangerie in 1932 left him stunned. He attended the Beaux-Arts de Lyon and produced a number of "imitative and academic" canvases, which he later destroyed. In 1933, he continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts de Paris in Paul Albert Laurens' studio, where he met Roger Bissière, Jean Le Moal and Alfred Manessier. He helped found the Témoignage group of painters, sculptors, writers and musicians. During this period, Bertholle is fascinated by Symbolism, the irony of Bruegel and the strangeness of Bosch

In 1941, his painting changes direction. Attentive to the work of the Primitives, Bertholle returned to a "very meticulous figurative". He took part in the Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française exhibition, the first manifestation of avant-garde painting under the Occupation. In 1943, he became artistic director of the Gien earthenware factory due to financial constraints, and suffered from not being able to devote enough time to painting. In 1944, however, he took part in a group show at the Galerie de France with Bissière, Le Moal, Manessier, Singier and Étienne-Martin, and was a founding member of the first Salon de Mai. In the 1950s, Bertholle exhibited at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher, before obtaining a contract with Roque in 1957, enabling him to give up his position at the Gien earthenware factory and devote himself entirely to painting. He slowly moved towards non-figurative painting, wanting to "erase references and move away from the object towards the essential."

Bertholle was selected in 1949 and 1960 for the Venice Biennale, as well as the São Paulo Biennale, and took part in the 1959 exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. The first retrospective exhibitions of his work were held in 1964 in Metz, Luxembourg and Caen. From 1965 to 1980, Bertholle taught as head of the mural art studio at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. New retrospectives were held in 1972 in Dijon, then Besançon and Saint-Germain- en-Laye.

At the end of the 1960s, when Bertholle was recognized alongside his peers as one of the major artists of the new École de Paris, he was one of the first to renounce non-figurative vision. "I was no longer satisfied with non-figurative forms. One day, the process was triggered: the figurative once again broke through the material", he says.

After a new retrospective at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, he was elected a member of the Institut de France in 1983. In his acceptance speech, he expressed his incomprehension of conceptual art, which is often reduced to simple installations before which "a public of snobs pretends to marvel". Passionate about teaching, he founded his own painting academy the same year. After his death in 1996, a first retrospective exhibition was held in La Ciotat in 1997, followed by a second in Dijon in 2011.

His works are held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et Musée d'Art Sacré in Dijon, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, the Musée Greuze in Tournus and the Musée d'Unterlinden in Colmar.