Artist : Janine JANET (1913-2000)
Title : Female costume project
Medium : Ink on paper
Type of work : Original drawing of the artist, annotated at the top
Dimensions : 28 cm x 22 cm
Condition : Good
Provenance : Janine JANET workshop, the invoice engages the gallery's responsibility for the authenticity of the work.
References: Claude d'Anthenaise, Janine Janet Metamorphoses, Paris, Norma, 2003
Expert's comments and biography : Artist and interior decorator graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse and the School of Decorative Arts in Paris, Janine Janet nicknamed by Jean Cocteau "the princess of shells" is first attracted by drawing and painting. sculpture. In 1936, she met the portraitist Jean-Claude Janet. In 1952, Cristobal Balenciaga allowed him to fully express his talent and assert his style by creating the decorations for the windows of his fashion house located on Avenue Georges V in Paris. Any creation then begins with a drawing, very often in watercolor or gouache. The artist indeed needs to project on a sheet of paper his emotions and his baroque and phantasmagoric imagination. Janine Janet belongs to an artistic current which will, in reaction to the purity of Art Deco, favor ornamental profusion. Influenced by the surrealists who appreciated the strange and the irrational, she reveled in the marvelous of her studio-apartment in the rue des Petits Hôtels, which resembled André Breton's cabinet of curiosities. The preparatory drawings for his creations discovered by the gallery are all the more precious and rare as they are often witnesses to the artist's ephemeral creations. For their realization, the artist draws from his iconographic repertoire including the idyllic nature of his childhood in Reunion and gives each element a life of its own. It is therefore not surprising to find in her creations: Shells, mother-of-pearl, madrepores, plants, bark or stones that she submits to strange metamorphoses. Indeed, the artist in a singular way, mixes in his works the kingdoms (plant, animal, mineral and human) thus raising the question of our close link with nature. Is it the human who turns into stone, into plants or is it the other way around? Aren't man and nature two sides of the same coin? Janine Janet then enchants the public with her creatures (sphinxes, naiads, fauns, nymphs...) and offers a magical universe that is a real breath of fresh air in the 50s and 60s. An exhibition entitled "Janine Janet. Metamorphoses" will be dedicated to him in 2003.
Les clients de l'artiste furent nombreux :
- Vitrines des boutiques de luxe : Balenciaga, Givenchy, Ninan Ricci, Balamain, Lanvin, Dior, Hermes, Fourrures Shrank à Munich, Black Starr et Gorham à New-York, Jacques Fath Paris, Helena Rubenstein, Haviland
- Vitrines des magasins : Roger et Gallet, Le Printemps, Henry à la pensée faubourg Saint Honoré Paris, Chausseur Emeraude, Chantelle
- Grands orfèvres : Bijouterie Chaumier, Maison Christofle, Arthus Bertrand
- Décors et costumes : pour des films (Testament d'Orphée de Jean Cocteau, tourné en 1959) ou soirées prestigieuses
- Couvertures de magazines dont Vogue
- Décoration d'intérieur : A la demande de Dennis Lenon elle réalisera une Vénus en bronze pour le paquebot Queen Elisabeth 2 de la compagnie Cunard Steam Sheap Liverpool, Tissus pour Pierre Frey, Décors de meubles pour Gilbert Poillerat, John dévoluy ou Alberto Pinto
- Créations et décors de fêtes pour des personnages célèbres : Francine Weisweiller, Paul Louis Weiller, Le prince Ali khan, Ludmilla Tcherina, Jean Marais, Pierre Arpels...
Cette description a été élaborée par nos soins suite à notre expertise et aux différents ouvrages de référence sur l'artiste en notre possession, toute copie ou reprise est donc interdite.