ArtistJouenne, Michel

Artist Years1933-2021

Artist NationalityFrench

TitlePicking Wildflowers

Yearca. 1970

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 15 X 22 inches

Accession NumberRC1773

NotesAn official Navy artist, Michel Jouenne was also inspired by Mediterranean landscapes and the monuments and streets of Paris. A multidisciplinary painter, he successfully tried his hand at various techniques. A fervent lover of the South of France, he has his own museum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Michel Jouenne was born in Boulogne-Billancourt. His mother was a decorator, and his father, an engineer. At the age of 14, while his friends were still playing marbles, he developed a passion for painting and produced his first work with soaked paint. In 1949, at the age of 16, he exhibited three gouaches at the Salon de Versailles, one of which won an award. At the age of 22, he passed the drawing educator exam of the City of Paris. The following year he produced his first oil paintings. In 1958, he was drafted in Kabylia for a year and two months. However, he did not stop practicing and made making pochades a type of sketch used in painting. The year 1969, he participated for the first time in the annual exhibition of “Painters Witnesses of their Time.” Numerous exhibitions followed in places such as the Salon d’Automne, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Salon des Artistes Français. He often received awards. In 1988, he was appointed General Commissioner of the Salon d’Automne. He was President of the Friends of the Salon d’Automne from 1990 to 1995.

A prolific artist, painter, lithographer, illustrator, and sculptor, Michel Jouenne is part of this school of talent from the “Young Painters of the Fifties.” His work illustrates life, the natural beauty of the planet in landscapes filled with color. Each of his paintings reveals his joy in creating new works. He astonishes by his opaque and translucent materials, his large watercolored planes, and his luminous shimmers. His talent has been rewarded in many places. In 1987, he was made Knight of the Cultural and Artistic Merit, and Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1990. The following year, in 1991, he was appointed Official Painter of the Navy.

Michel Jouenne is known as much for his marine paintings as for his Mediterranean landscapes. He has produced several paintings depicting Paris: The Eiffel Tower, The Sacred Heart, The Cranes in Paris, or The Grand Palais. One-person shows are regularly organized in places like Paris, New-York, Abidjan, Noumea, Moscow, Tokyo, and Seoul. His work is part o the Estades Gallery permanent collection since 2009. It is on display at the four locations of the Estades Gallery, in Paris, Lyon, Toulon, and Baden-Baden.

Hervé Bazin, for which he illustrated the book “Qui j’ose aimer,” published in 1986 by Grasset, said of him: “Jouenne sings nature. Figuratively, he is never a slave of the subject he depicts”.
(source: Galerie Estades)