Adrienne JOUCLARD (1882-1972) - Lot 363

Adrienne JOUCLARD (1882-1972) "Rowing in Joinville". Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Titled and countersigned on the back. Has a studio sale stamp on the back. Dimensions : 46 x 38 cm. A painter born in Onville (54) in 1882, Mademoiselle JOUCLARD divided her life between Versailles and the Rupt de Mad valley, two places that were to remain her major sources of inspiration throughout her life. A student at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and later at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the artist soon freed herself from classical codes to develop a more personal style in which movement was omnipresent. She often said that she sought "movement, not for the movement itself", but simply because for her it was "the expression of life". At the 1914 Salon des Artistes Français, she presented an oil on canvas entitled "Vers le soir en Passegaille - Lorraine". Through scenes of daily life and popular festivals, she captured the moment in the manner of a film-maker, without freezing it. Her fluid, vibrantly charged painting is alive and well. Like many Impressionist and Cubist artists, in the early twentieth century she took an interest in sport, which for her was a "formidable reservoir of energy where movement predominates". Many of Adrienne Jouclard's paintings show boxing matches, fencing championships, skating, horse-riding and racecourses. Today, some thirty of her finest works can be seen at the Musée National du Sport in Paris. Similarly, when she vacationed at the family home in Onville, she would criss-cross the valley on her bicycle or solex with her sketchbook in her pocket. Throughout her life, she made the whole area, from Arnaville to Waville and from Chambley to Gorze, her own, meticulously redrawing each and every part of it, which she then painted in her Paris studio. Today, Adrienne Jouclard's work is renowned far beyond the borders of Lorraine and France. Since 1992, a street in Onville has been named after her. Bibl.: "http://www.adrienne-jouclard.org/" Lorraine art consultant: Mr. Robert Leterrier