Description
Jean-Gabriel Domergue (1899-1962)
French painter, he was born in Bordeaux on 4th March 1889. After high school, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. His artistic talent early bloomed: at 17, in 1906, he exhibited at the Salon of Artists. Three years later, he won the silver medal at Prix de Rome and in 1920 won the gold medal at the Salon. In Paris, he met his cousin Henri-Toulouse Lautrec, who introduced him into the world of café and Parisian nights. But the meeting that changed his life was the one with Giovanni Boldini and his portraits of worldliness: he abandoned the landscape production, concentrated on portraits. His subjects were mainly members of the aristocracy, politics, finance and high society in general, but his real passion were always women. Thin, casual and always elegant, Domergue women look at the world with a polite detachment from their elongated necks, with big eyes wide open. «I am the inventor of the pin-up» he said few years later.Renowned artist, he then became a worldly character portrayed in his paintings: the fashionable (he drew clothes and accessories) and born entertainer, he was one of the most famous party organizers in Paris. In the fifties, he worked as curator of the museum Jacquemart-André in Paris, organizing extraordinary exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, Seurat, Van Gogh, Goya, Boldini and many other great artists.
