Jean Hugo - Paintings

Paintings

Hugo is predominantly known for his sketches and oil or gouache paintings, which are often executed in small formats. He also illustrated books, designed theatre sets and costumes and produced ceramics, murals, textile designs and stained glass windows. Hugo designed the sets and costumes for Carl Theodor Dreyer's film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). His paintings can be viewed at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and are also present in collections in London, Tokyo, Toronto, Paris, Marseille, and at the Musee Fabre in Montpellier, France – where there is room dedicated to his paintings.

• Maison en ruine à la targette, 1915

• Intérieur d'un bar, 1917

• Panneaux de signalisation de chemin de fer (aquarelle, page de carnet), 1918

• Château Mouton-Rothschild wine label, 1946

• Tunisie 1966

• Le Bateau blanc, Sète, 1971

Jean Hugo’s painting is unique in the artistic panorama of the first half of the 20th century and maintains an authentic originality while evoking certain avant-garde themes of magical realism or metaphysical painting. At the start of the 1930s, in between naïve and happy scenes and various theatrical projects – such as Jean Cocteau’s Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel – he produced a series of masterful works in brooding, unsettling, tones (Solitude, 1933).

He showed an interest in forest scenes (L'Ermite de Meudon, 1933) and religious themes (La Cène, 1933). L'Imposteur (1931) and La Baie des Trépassés (1932) were produced in the same period. His painting were based on the sketchbooks that he had with him at all times. He used to say that “Inspiration comes naturally but one has to arrange regular meetings with it”.

L'Imposteur (1931) concludes Hugo's first artistic period, which coincides with his move from Paris to the family property at the Mas de Fourques, Lunel, France, following the death of his grandmother. This imposing painting is a masterful assembly of the most important insights he had acquired thus far: the lessons of the Italian primitives, of Henri Rousseau, of Poussin and Picasso, sources of inspiration on which he is constantly drawing. The subject of the painting evokes the discomfort of the catechumen in the midst of the faithful, prevented from taking communion during Christmas mass at the Church of Saint-Francois in Montpellier. The painting is set in the countryside around Lunel, with its vineyards and low scrubland (garrigue). The tense and complex composition of the work is extremely well executed. No element, line, motif, nuance of colour or object is secondary. Each element contributes to the pictorial vision. The delicate volumes are bathed in an intense luminosity and stand out from the background. The figures are fixed in the space by superimposed connections, in the Florentine manner.

In the middle of the 1930s, he began using oil paints to create his larger compositions while continuing to paint with tempera. Le Mangeur au chandail rayé (autoportrait) (1940) shows the artist in his home at the Mas de Fourques. The motif of the stripes contrasts with the neat contours of the table, the chimney and the wall. In this homely setting, the figure seems surrounded by mystery and casualness. Although Hugo does not draw greatly on De Chirico, this work evokes the feeling of isolation and mystery that characterises the production of the latter.

Jean Hugo’s work bears witness to his intention to work outside of current trends and fashionable theories. He never felt the need to participate in the artistic debates of his time and paid the price for it by never achieving wide recognition of his work by the general public.

His auction record is $US308,200, for Les Plaisirs et les Jours, set at Francois de Ricqlès' auction, Paris, on 26 November 1999.