Alexandre Louis Jacob

Working Horse by River

c.1940

Alexandre Jacob was born in Paris in 1876. He undertook his formal artistic training at the Académie des Beaux-Arts with Eugene Claude. Jacob lived just outside Paris in Asnières-sur-Seine, situated on the banks of the river Seine. Jacob is best known for his atmospheric and luminous landscapes. He gained his rare understanding and love for nature through studied inspection, transferring his observations skillfully on to canvas. His masterful evocation of light, atmosphere, colour and sense of place are remarkable and have a true ability to transport the viewer to the very banks of the River Seine and River Marne where Jacob would patiently wait, paintbrush poised to capture his unique visions of the French countryside. Jacob was a master at capturing the French landscape as it subtly changed between the seasons. In autumn, his paintings contain a golden aura, in winter, a soft creamy light diffuses across the landscape with hues of pinks and blues reflected in snow on the river banks and his depictions of springtime resonate with the crisp morning light. Jacob preferred to paint in the quiet moments after a storm had passed, and each of his landscapes have a unique atmosphere of calm and tranquility, achieved by the still watery reflections in the foreground. Jacob debuted at the Paris Salon of 1899. He was awarded the Hors Concours at the Salon of 1908 at the Exposition Annuelle des Beaux-Arts and his work was exhibited annually at both the Salon d’Automne and the prestigious Salon d’Hiver, for which he gained numerous awards and distinctions which led to his election as a member of the Jury of the Paris Salon. Along with his close friend Édouard Léon Cortès, Jacob was a member of L’Union des Beaux-Arts de Lagny, formed in 1926. Herbert Fuller, of Gladwell & Company, London, first came across Jacob’s work in the Paris Salon after the Second World War, and it was at this point that Jacob’s work began to attract the international clientele of this historic art gallery in the City of London. Initially Jacob was represented by Galerie Haussmann in Paris, but as his popularity grew, Gladwell & Company acquired work directly from the artist from the early 1960’s until Jacob’s death in 1972. In recent years, Gladwell & Patterson have had the good fortune to collect some unique drawings by Jacob which the artist would send to his close friends at Christmas and New Year. Jacob’s work has featured in numerous exhibitions in France, South America, United States and throughout Europe. His paintings have been acquired by the French Government, the City of Paris, The Department Seine and the Conseil General de la Seine. Jacob’s work also features in many distinguished private collections and museums across Europe, including Troyes, St. Etienne, Fougeres, Paris, St. Nazair and St. Quentin. Since Jacob’s death, three generations of the Fuller family of Gladwell & Patterson have continued to place Jacob’s illuminating oil paintings in illustrious private collections worldwide. In recent years Jacob’s paintings have risen in popularity.