Jeanne Arnaville (XX) - Maison de campagne

Jean Arnaville was born in Paris, where his parents were wholesale jewelers on Quai Voltaire. Jean Arnaville had a fairly free childhood as a 'neighborhood vagabond,' and he very early on attended performances at the nearby Cirque d'Hiver. Later, he frequented 'all the theaters of Paris, of which he would remain a faithful spectator as much as a ruthless critic.'
After completing his military service in Le Havre in 1901, he embarked on a long journey along the Seine with a friend, painting en plein air and stopping particularly at Pont-de-l'Arche, Rouen, where he said he was 'captivated by a strange atmosphere that he would hardly find again except in Holland,' and finally La Bouille, from which he brought back numerous canvases that contributed to his participation in the Salon des Indépendants in 1908. When, in Paris, in February-March 1912, he exhibited at the Galerie Devambez alongside Ignacio Zuloaga, a Spanish painter then residing in Segovia, the Gazette des Beaux-Arts praised him, saying he 'showed very skillful landscapes.'

During volunteering in the First World War, Jean Arnavielle was assigned to the medical service of the city of Rouen, where he formed lasting friendships with the violinist Robert Krettly and the actor Georges Dorival. After the armistice of 1918, he stayed in Rouen for some time, participating in several exhibitions. Later returning to Paris, he still maintained a residence there and was considered 'a Rouen native at heart.'