Édouard Brindeau De Jarny (1867-1943), Portrait Of A Young African, 1938

Édouard Brindeau de Jarny (1867-1943)
Portrait of a young African, 1938
Sanguine on paper
Signed, monogrammed and dated “14.1.38” lower right
Dimensions of the work: 37 x 33 cm
Dimensions of the frame: 40 x 30 cm
Tiny scratches and small trace of folds at the top right

Son of Édouard Brindeau (1814-1882), member of the Comédie Française, and Adrienne de Jarny, also an actress, the painter Édouard Brindeau de Jarny a for older brother the art ironworker Paul Brindeau de Jarny (1858-1939). He evolved in the mundane Paris of the years 1900-1910 before settling in Casablanca in 1919 from where he traveled through the Maghreb, to the High Atlas.

Close to General Hubert Lyautey then the first General Resident of the French protectorate in Morocco, Édouard Brindeau de Jarny played a considerable role in the development of artistic life in Casablanca. Supported by the Residence, he works in favor of collective training by founding the school of fine arts in the city where he teaches painting and drawing and also participates in the creation of the first fine arts museum in Morocco, of which he provides leadership. In 1922, Édouard Brindeau de Jarny was one of the first members of the Association of French Painters and Sculptors of Morocco alongside other orientalists such as Jacques Majorelle and Albert Laprade. This artistic society breathes a stylistic revival in the orientalist current in a country where artistic consciousness is in full formation.

Painter of portraits, landscapes and genre scenes in a realistic approach inherited from Impressionism, Édouard Brindeau de Jarny is particularly known for his orientalist work as well as for his portraits of personalities. He participated in several exhibitions (Salon d'Automne, Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, etc.) and colonial exhibitions in France where he presented views of North Africa.

Thanks to colonial conquests, the Orient of painters is no longer imaginary or distant but is gaining in truth. The almost photographic aspect of the drawing that we offer is reminiscent of the work of geographers and more particularly those of the Geographical Society of Morocco who were, among other things, responsible for making paintings with ethnological subjects. Anxious to render what he sees, Édouard Brindeau de Jarny reproduces nature without pretension, fearing the formula. Life seems to spring from this portrait of a man in monochrome, produced only in red chalk. The stump technique allows for a very realistic rendering of the model of the face.

© AB/AC marchand d'art