Jean Jansem (1920-2013) - Femme au balcon

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

Work in good condition, never framed.
The piece shows a few signs of aging along the margin edge (see photos), which can be easily concealed during framing with a mat or with a light pastel touch-up.

Express shipping with included art-specific insurance.

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

The need for hospital care at the age of ten, due to broken bones in his feet, brought him to France accompanied by his mother, where, after four years of immobilization in a hospital (including six months with the brothers of the Hospital Order of Saint John of God near Dinan), he set up a large studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux, established his workshop there and began painting portraits and landscapes with early success. 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 on the Place des Vosges. Then, fairly adequately supporting himself by painting at night letters for greyhound racing interests, 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 of Paris, earning his diploma in 1938. When 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 was naturalized as French in 1940, participated in the Salon des indépendants in 1941 and continued to attend the workshops 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 (his first return in 1950), Spain, and Italy, he painted and drew from nature, notably bullfighting, processions, markets, carnivals and studio scenes. Simultaneously he produced lithographs and engravings related 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, since then, his work has been regularly shown in Japan.

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

In 2002, he traveled 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 communal cemetery of Clamart.