Jean Jansem (1920-2013) - Femme au balcon

Jean JANSEM (1920-2013 - Woman on the Balcony
Original lithograph on vélin paper measuring 74 x 55 cm.
Numbered 71/80 and signed in pencil by the artist.

Work in good condition, never framed.
The artwork shows a few signs of aging along the margin (see photos), which can be easily concealed when framing, by a passe-partout or by a light pastel touch.

Shipped express with art-specific insurance included.

Jean Jansem, pseudonym of Ohannès Semerdjian, born March 9, 1920 in Seuleuze (Sölöz) near Bursa, Turkey, and died August 27, 2013 at his home in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher (Loir-et-Cher), was a French painter, sculptor and printmaker of Armenian origin. Ohannès Semerdjian was born in Turkey to Armenian parents; his father was an industrialist in the silk thread industry, and the war that broke out in 1922 between Turkey and Greece forced his family to emigrate to Thessaloniki, where they resumed silk work and where he spent his childhood, his interest in painting leading him to reproduce scenes from ancient mythology.

The health-care constraint at age ten, due to broken bones in his feet, brought him to France with his mother where, after four years of hospital confinement (including six months with the Brothers of the Hospital Order of Saint John of God near Dinan), he rented a large space in Issy-les-Moulineaux, established his studio there and painted, already with success, portraits and landscapes. He nevertheless attended evening classes at the Beaux-Arts workshops of the City of Paris at 80, boulevard du Montparnasse, while also attending a preparatory school at Place des Vosges. Then, fairly adequately supporting himself by painting in the evenings letters for greyhounds betting, then by practicing photo retouching, in 1936 he became a pupil of Maurice Brianchon, Raymond Legueult and Roland Oudot at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, obtaining his diploma in 1938. War came; he was exempted due to his foot, and he worked in a gas mask factory until the Liberation, while continuing to paint. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1940, participated in the Salon des Indépendants in 1941 and continued to attend the ateliers of Yves Brayer, Jean Aujame, Édouard Georges Mac-Avoy and Édouard Goerg at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière until his selection for the Autumn Salon in 1945.

During many stays in Greece (first return in 1950), in Spain, and in Italy, he painted and drew from life notably bullfighting, processions, markets, carnivals and workshop scenes. Parallel to this, he executed lithographs and engravings relating to his themes.

In 1957, his career became international. He exhibited in Italy, Switzerland, England and especially the United States. In 1969, Mitsukoshi Gallery presented a retrospective of his works in Tokyo and his work has since regularly been shown in Japan.

Two museums have dedicated spaces to him: in Ginza (Tokyo), in 1992, and in Azumino, in 1993.

In 2002, he went to Armenia for the official inauguration of his exhibition “Massacres” at the Genocide Museum in Yerevan.

Died on August 27, 2013, Jean Jansem rests in the Clamart intercommunal cemetery.