Jonas Lucien Hector (1880–1947) “oxen Pulling A Cart” Anzin Paris France

JONAS Lucien Hector (1880–1947)

" Oxen Pulling a Cart "

Oil on canvas,
Signed and inscribed in the lower right corner: "To my dear friend Rap...B... With warmest regards—August 1909,"

A beautiful work by the French painter Lucien Jonas depicting two oxen with golden coats, linked by a wooden yoke, pulling a cart down a village street, perhaps in the Valenciennes region, where the painter was born.
The painter uses a palette dominated by shades of ochre, yellow, and brown, and plays with light effects and contrasts to highlight the anatomy of the oxen and create depth in the composition.

Coming from an industrial background in northern France, he showed exceptional artistic talent at a very early age, which led him to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under the guidance of renowned masters such as Albert Maignan. His brilliant academic career culminated in winning the second Grand Prix de Rome in painting in 1905, which definitively launched his artistic career. Deeply attached to his Picardy roots and the working-class world, he gained widespread recognition by immortalizing, with realism and sensitivity, the daily lives of miners, industrial landscapes, and the social conditions of workers in his region.

When World War I broke out, his fate took a dramatic turn when he was appointed official military painter attached to the Army Museum, a role that took him to the front lines to sketch the daily lives of soldiers and paint portraits of prominent Allied military leaders. This institutional versatility continued later in his career, as he was successively awarded the prestigious titles of Official Painter of the Navy and then Painter of the Air Force.

A prolific and well-rounded artist, Lucien Jonas did not limit himself to easel paintings and excelled masterfully in monumental art by creating large decorative frescoes for public buildings and churches. The general public also encountered his work—often without realizing it—beginning in the 1930s, a period during which the Banque de France commissioned him to create designs and illustrations for several famous banknotes.

Appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1929, he spent the last years of his life painting actively despite his illness, leaving behind a considerable visual legacy that is now carefully preserved in museums such as the one in Valenciennes and the Musée d’Orsay.

Dimensions: 50 x 61 cm unframed and 59.5 x 70.5 cm with an original wooden frame.

For more information, please contact us.