What the owner of the most famous villa in France did for the art world: Jean-Gabriel Domergue

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

His works are often copied, replicated in print and distributed on social networks - without knowing the name of the author. The best friend of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the father of Pinup, the poster of the first Cannes Festival and the owner of the most famous villa in France … Jean-Gabriel Domergue managed to do a lot - but remained in history as the creator of hundreds of paintings with charming female images.

The future singer of "French beauty" was born in 1889 in the family of the famous art critic Gabriel Domergue in Bordeaux. Parents supported their child in every possible way. Do you want to draw? The Lyceum of Art in Bordeaux, the Lyceum Rollin and the Paris School of Fine Arts are at your service. The boy was indeed very talented - at the age of fourteen he won first prize at the Paris Salon competition. It is not known what he presented to the audience, but in his youth Domergue did not even think about the images of fatal beauties - at least in painting. He dreamed of being a landscape painter, but subsequent events greatly influenced his professional guidelines.

It is normal for loving and supportive parents to be proud of their children and their accomplishments. So Jean-Gabriel's mother, as it were, accidentally let her friend know about her son's artistic talent, and she … ordered him her portrait. Obviously, the portrait turned out to be very successful and paved the way for Domergue as a portrait painter. And then the “brother of my mother’s friend” intervened in Domergue’s fate.

The client turned out to be a cousin of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the founder of the lithographic theater poster and the best friend of all the Moulin Rouge dancers. Lautrec saw the portrait and … he liked it. He wished to immediately get acquainted with the young talent. A strong friendship developed between them, despite the significant age difference. Lautrec, a difficult man with a peculiar reputation, undertook to patronize Domergue. They often saw each other, talked for a long time, Lautrec gave the young artist lessons in painting and graphics. Subsequently, together they often visited the Moulin Rouge - the images of dancers and courtesans would then appear in the works of Jean-Gabriel. In general, the influence of Lautrec is clearly noticeable in all of Domergue's paintings - plots, stylization of figures and plastic lines, seductive female images and bright colors. All his life he called himself a follower of Lautrec.

Domergue regularly participated in exhibitions and competitions of the Salon, becoming the youngest artist recognized at this level. But early fame only spurred his desire to learn. He took lessons not only from his friend Lautrec - among the teachers of Domergue were Adler, Fleming, Boldini and … Degas. Jean-Gabriel lived next door to the latter - he rented an apartment on the floor above. True, they did not become friends, but Degas taught Domergue to work with pastels.

Until almost thirty, Domergue did not abandon his dream of becoming a landscape painter, and his landscapes were highly valued, but … did not bring income. Jean-Gabriel found a job as a fashion illustrator - and the genre of "beautiful woman in a beautiful dress" became defining for him. Domergue quickly became famous for illustrations for the covers of fashionable Parisian magazines. His style was very in tune with the voice of the era of jazz and glamor.

He was ordered by the stars of the stage and cinema, he collaborated with the theater, cinema, press. Domergue was posed by Brigitte Bardot and Gina Lolobrigida. He painted "Black Venus" by Josephine Baker nude. Domergue's nude brushes were surprisingly chaste and sensual at the same time, ethereal and filled with passion. He was an artist who painted stylized erotic pictures - but in such a way that no one would dare to reproach him for being vulgar. Soft irony, quirky, recognizable style and vivid characters of women from his paintings enchanted the audience. Domergue himself called himself the ancestor of the pinup (usually attributed to its creation by American illustrators).

It is believed that it was Domergue who greatly contributed to the formation of stereotypes about "true Parisians" - invariably graceful beauties, brilliant, vicious and inaccessible secular lionesses. True, over time, not only French women began to order portraits from Domergue … In 1927, the artist settled in Cannes, where he acquired and rebuilt a luxurious villa according to his project. He carefully coordinated every detail with the builders, chose furniture and decor items …

However, in Cannes he did not have to rest on his laurels. To the famous Domergue, queues of young actresses, famous and not so famous, lined up. They were ready to give any money to an artist who could turn an earthly woman from blood and flesh into an unattainable dream … By the way, despite the beauties surrounding Domergue, he was not at all a womanizer and linked his life with a woman equally gifted and talented. Odette Modrange-Domergue, a sculptor with an architectural education, became his chosen one. It was she who turned the garden near their Cannes villa into a real masterpiece of landscape design - terraces and cypress alleys, ponds and flower beds, antique sculptures, an empty Etruscan-style tomb, and a sculptural composition depicting a happy couple.

In 1939, French intellectuals decided to organize their own film festival - in Cannes. It was supposed to become an "opposition" to the Venetian, where prizes were awarded only to pro-fascist tapes, which often did not even correspond to the rules of the festival itself. For the first Cannes Film Festival, Domergue created a daring poster in his recognizable style. Alas, in 1939 the festival did not take place.

Rich and famous, Domergue did not limit himself to painting. In 1955 he became the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. It is not surprising that, first of all, he organized an exhibition of Toulouse-Lautrec - and also da Vinci, Goya, Prudon, Van Gogh … The self-proclaimed creator of the pinup became a Knight of the Legion of Honor and remained in demand until the last days of his life. He died in 1962 in Paris.

Connoisseurs of art are of great interest the story of the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, whom loved ones considered a disgrace of the family, Van Gogh was a friend, and connoisseurs were a genius - best friend Jean-Gabriel Domergue.