JEAN CHALEYÉ (1878 Saint-Étienne – 1960 Puy-en-Velay)
Roses
Vers 1920
Huile sur carton
45 x 60 cm
Dédiée et signée sur la lettre : Madame Gouteyron / J. Chaleye
Inscrit sur le verso : Mme Gouteyron / 37 Blvrd Gambetta
PRIX : sur demande
JEAN CHALEYÉ (Saint-Étienne 1878 – Le Puy-en-Velay 1960)
Pink Roses in a Dark Blue Glass Vase
Circa 1920
Oil on board
45 x 60 cm (dimensions of the painting)
Dedicated and signed on the letter: Madame Gouteyron / J. Chaleyé
Inscribed on the reverse: Mme Gouteyron / 37 Blvrd Gambetta
Jean Chaleyé was one of the most important textile designers and flower painters in France in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Saint-Étienne, an industrial city situated 60 km to the southwest of Lyon. Although known as Lyon’s sister city, Saint-Étienne is culturally quite distinct and there has always been a fierce rivalry between the two. Chaleyé studied first at the School of Industrial Arts in Saint-Étienne before winning a scholarship to study at the Lyon School of Fine Arts and its highly regarded ‘Flower Class’. The ‘Classe de fleurs’ at the Lyon Art School emerged out of the need to form talented flower designers for the important silk industry in the city. After three years in Lyon, Chaleyé won the Prix de Paris which provided him with a grant for further study in Paris, and he entered both the Paris School of the Decorative Arts and the Paris School of the Fine Arts, effectively following a twin path as an industrial designer and as a fine artist. Towards the end of his time at art school in Paris he was recruited by the French government to oversee reform and to revive and improve design in the French lace industry. To this end, Chaleyé relocated to Le Puy-en-Velay, a beautiful and ancient town deep in the centre of France which had an established if ailing lace industry. Le Puy was also only 80 km south along the Loire River from Saint-Étienne (just over an hour on the train), so in a way Chaleyé was back home. For the next forty years he represented the French lace industry in many national and international exhibitions and trade fairs. Throughout, he remained dedicated to painting in oils, mainly still-lives of flowers and landscapes, and he exhibited regularly at Salon exhibitions in Saint-Étienne, Lyon and Paris. The Crozatier Museum (a great museum well worth visiting) in Le Puy has many still-lives by Chaleyé in their collection. On the surface there can seem a great difference between a naturalistic and colourful still life such as this with the sumptuous pink roses in a dark blue glass vase and the more abstract repeating patterns of lace design, but what the ‘Flower Class’ at the Lyon Art School highlights was that the talent and the skill to draw and paint flowers was the foundation of good textile design. Above all else, Chaleyé was a brilliant flower painter.
Galerie Jamie Mulherron – Sculpteurs et peintures du 19e siècle – Lyon
Tél : 06 33 27 50 09 | Courriel : mulherron@orange.fr
Jamie Mulherron 