Jean-Pierre Laurens

Jean-Pierre Laurens (1875-1932) Study of a reading monk , original drawing

circa 1920

Jean-Pierre Laurens was born on March 18 1875 in Paris he died in Fontenay-aux-Roses on April 23 1932. He was the youngest son of the painter Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921) , and of Madeleine Willemsens (1848-1913). He was also the brother of the painter Paul Albert Laurens (1870-1934) and the husband of the artist Yvonne Diéterle (1882-1974), sculptor and painter. He exhibited at the Salon des artistes Français from 1899 onward. He was awarded third class medals the same year, a travel grant and a silver medal in 1900. He received a second class medal in 1906 . Jean-Pierre Laurens was taken prisoner in September 1914, in Rocquigny, near Péronne. Shot in the leg, he was transferred to the Wittenberg camp , south of Berlin. He testified through his drawings of the very harsh conditions of captivity and of the deadly typhus epidemic in the Wittenberg camp in 1915 in Prisoners of war. Notebook in memory of the companions in captivity of the Wittenberg camp (Paris 1918) In 1928, he was entrusted with the decoration of the Notre-Dame-du-Calvaire church in Châtillon ( Hauts-de-Seine ), built by the architects Joseph Flandrin and Yves-Marie Froidevaux. After his death in 1932, his wife, the sculptor and painter Yvonne Diéterle-Laurens, took over the management of this project. He died on April 23, 1932 in his residence in Fontenay-aux-Roses. His works are held by different Fine Arts Museums in France : Beauvais, Bordeaux, Dole, Fecamp, Rouen, Toulouse and by the National Art Museum in Paris. Literature : Benezit