Lucien Hector Jonas

LUCIEN HECTOR JONAS ( Anzin, France, 1880 - Paris, France, 1947).
"Day at the beach".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 54.50 x 65 cm, 76 x 87 cm (frame).

Lucien Jonas was a French painter noted for his beach scenes. The author is usually portrayed in most of his canvases of this theme, generally with the rest of his family. He appears exercising his profession as a painter or taking care of his children, as is the case of the present work.

The present oil painting shows a family day at the beach, before a powerful and yellow light of the Mediterranean sunset, a recurring theme of the post-impressionist master who dedicated part of his production to social genre painting. In his studied composition, which does not lose a certain air of spontaneity, for Lucien Jonas, the beach became a sphere of social representation, bourgeois and cosmopolitan, rather than a place of spontaneous enjoyment. In the work we present here, the elegance of this type of compositions is maintained, showing the characters dressed mainly in white clothes, with light and light colors, although elegant. The marked brushstroke, which, together with the absence of drawing, also provides an air of preparatory study, are two elements that brought Lucien Jonas to the top of the world artistic scene.

Lucien Hector Jonas was one of the most productive illustrators at the time of the First World War. He studied in Valenciennes and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His works have been reproduced in numerous newspapers, magazines and, eventually, in books around the world. Between the two world wars, Jonas focused primarily on illustrating historical and religious subjects.

A talented artist, Jonas was mobilized in December 1914 and in February 1915 was officially recognized as a "military painter for the Musée de l'Armée" in Paris. During the war, he traveled extensively to all sections of the front, creating thousands of drawings, oil paintings, charcoals, sketches and illustrations of all kinds. He also produced a number of works unrelated to his depictions of the war.

His work was part of the 1932 Summer Olympics painting competition.