DOMERGUE Jean-Gabriel

JOSEPHINE BAKER

Oil on canvas: 227 x 161 cm (89.4 x 63.4 in) without frame and 246 x 187 cm (96.8 x 73.6 in) with frame
Signed lower right

Painter of figures, nudes, portraits, landscapes and flowers; watercolorist, draughtsman, painter of gouaches and designer of posters. Jean-Gabriel Domergue was born in Bordeaux in 1889 and died in Paris in 1962. He was a painter specialized in figures, nudes, portraits, landscapes and flowers, but he was also a very talented watercolorist and draughtsman. He also worked with gouache and designed posters. He was educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and made his debut in 1906, at the age of seventeen, at the Salon des Artistes Français. He received an honorable mention there in 1908 and a gold medal in 1920. In 1955, Domergue became curator of the Museum Jacquemart-André.

This very painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1936

Joséphine Baker, stage name of Freda Josephine McDonald (Saint Louis (Missouri, USA), June 3, 1906 – Paris, April 12, 1975), was a world-famous dancer, singer and actress. She was born as an American citizen, on November 30, 1937 she acquired the French nationality as well. On the same date in 2021, she was interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the cemetery of honor for great minds from French history, such as Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Louis Braille, to name but a few. This was a tribute to her resistance work during the Second World War, her commitment as an activist for equal rights and her social importance in a broader sense.

Period:
Bordeaux 1889 - Paris 1962
French School

Exhibitions:
Bordeaux - Paris

Literature:
E. Bénézit, "Dictionary of Artists", Paris 2006, Vol. 4 , p. 1027-1029.