Jean-Yves Commère (1920-1986) - Voiliers en bord de mer

Jean-Yves Commère (1920-1986) - Sailboats by the Sea

Original lithograph on vellum paper measuring 67 x 50 cm. The work is numbered and signed in pencil.

Magnificent marine landscape, by one of the most important and talented painters of his generation.

Work in good condition, never framed.

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The numbering may differ from the photos.

Biography: Jean Commère, born in Paris on April 5, 1920, and died in Saint-Mathurin-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire) on October 22, 1986, was a French painter, watercolorist, draftsman, engraver, and illustrator.

In 1936, Jean Commère was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, then entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris two years later, in the studio of sculptor Jean Boucher. From 1936 onward, he participated in numerous collective exhibitions in France and abroad.

On November 11, 1940, he was imprisoned for protesting the arrest of Paul Langevin. Released in 1941, he joined his family in Anjou where he was under house arrest.

He spent a spell in Brittany during 1947-1948 (he settled there for four years in Denée, Maine-et-Loire, where he painted harbor scenes and Breton women). In 1951 his first solo exhibition took place in Paris at the Monique de Groote gallery. He obtained, jointly with Michel Rodde, the Grand Prix Othon-Friesz for his painting Floods at Denée in 1952. Reflecting on the misery-themed work of Bernard Buffet and the young painters of his time, Bernard Dorival placed Jean Commère, “with Gabriel Dauchot, Roger Lersy, Maurice Verdier and Raymond Guerrier, among the most notable champions of this expressionism.” His colleague Michel Ciry relates that he was a plein air painter: “it is on site that this admirable draftsman creates his trembling evocations where air, water and earth are suggested with an efficient economy of means that is the hallmark of masters.”

Jean Commère created the stage curtain, sets, and costumes for Béla Bartók’s Concerto à étoiles at the Paris Opera in 1955. He painted portraits of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret for The Witches of Salem in 1956. In 1957, his canvas Le vel d'hiv was acquired by the city of Paris.

Commère was named Chevalier of the Arts and Letters in 1958 and participated in the same year in the Venice Biennale. He was promoted to Officer of the same order in 1979.

He stayed on the Chausey Islands where he painted seascapes from 1959 to 1980. In 1971, Philippe Reichenbach Gallery offered him a first retrospective in New York. He won numerous prizes (Critics’ Award, Salon des peintres témoins Award, Deauville Biennale Award, Francis Smith Award…).

He returned to his native Anjou region at the beginning of the 1980s. In 1983, he executed a mural painting 9.50 m long on the circus theme for the Angers Conference Center. In 1984, the city of Angers gave Pope John Paul II a Descente de croix by Commère.

Married in 1947 to Suzanne (nicknamed “Suzette”) Barbier, he bought in 1954 a house in Brie at Le Plessis-Feu-Aussoux (Seine-et-Marne). There he painted landscapes, still lifes, family scenes, and a series of Madonnas. Suzanne, mayor of Le Plessis-Feu-Aussoux from 1965 to 1971, died at Le Plessis in July 1986. Jean Commère took his own life in October of the same year.