Frank Docherty

Mackerel Supper. Surrealist Contemporary Oil on Canvas.

2018

Large early 20th century French oil on canvas of tulips displayed in a confit jar. Signed Jean Julien to the bottom left and presented in a period frame. A rather charming and romantic impression of a tulip display. The colour palette is soft and gentle, light and airy and the artist has managed to impart to the whole painting a chalky texture which gives the impression of soft focus. The tulips are delicately painted but with great precision and attention to detail. The artist has thought carefully about both the scale and the shape of the image. The elongated rectangle is a perfect fit for the long ranging tulip stems. A thoroughly charming painting. Jean Pierre Louis Joseph Julien was a French painter born in Marseille on the 12th of May 1888. Julien was a member of the Salon des Artistes Français, friend of Marcel Pagnol, Fernandel, Raimu and Tino Rossi. Guy Dornand called him “the ambassador of Provence in Paris”. Between the wars, he stayed in Italy, travelled to North Africa and designed posters for tourism, murals and theatre sets, while remaining faithful to his hometown. He was a member of the 'Association des Marseillais de Paris.' along with his colleague Auguste Durand-Rosé. In 1933 Emmanuel Pontremoli, director of the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts proposed a design project for a school in Rue Saint-Martin, Paris. Several artists were given the chance to compete for this opportunity. Jean Julien impressed and was given the task. Julien taught at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and was also a drawing teacher at the Polytechnic School. Jean Julien died in Sanary-sur-Mer on the 5th of September 1974.

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