Pierre Jaques

Pierre Jaques was born on December 15, 1913 in Yverdon in Switzerland, at a place called Ste-Croix. From his early childhood, he paints and draws. When he was 16, his parents directed him to the Ecole des Arts Industriels de Genève where he learned, for four years, painting and sculpture in decoration and interior architecture. Then he entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Geneva in the studio of Alexandre Blanchet, whom he considered to be his true master. A meeting with the painter Adrien Holy opens up new horizons for him. He then completed his artistic training during trips to Venice, Florence, Paris and Madrid. Besides lucrative activities, he painted and exhibited in Zurich and Bern, where he obtained two federal scholarships for Fine Arts, and in Geneva. In 1954, he met Max Moos, the well-known talent scout. He exhibits regularly in his gallery on the quai du Mont-Blanc in Geneva. This collaboration will last 25 years. During this period, Max Moos organized, for him, exhibitions in the United States and Canada, under the theme "Return to nature". From 1941, Pierre Jaques also made numerous exhibitions in Switzerland, Geneva, at the Rath Museum and at the Athénée in particular, in Morges, Hermance, Carouge.

Pierre Jaques has a predilection for the Pays de Gex and in particular for Versonnex where he settles in 1968; he remained there until the end of his life in 2000. He painted many landscapes of the region, still lifes, nudes and portraits.

Pierre Jaques has participated in the artistic life of Versonnex since 1975. He has exhibited every year at the Salon d'Automne in Saint-Martin, since its creation in 1982. In 1996, he was the Guest of Honor of this exhibition. He opened his personal gallery to artists on several occasions, in particular in 1980 and 1988, in order to allow the restoration of the stained glass windows and the creation of an Aubusson tapestry for the church of Versonnex.

Pierre Jaques's painting is easy to read, the result of careful and uncompromising observation of nature. The writing is simple, supported by a very present drawing. The color comes alive without breaking the harmony or modifying the composition.

Pierre Jaques was not only a talented painter, but also an affable man, a wise man, willingly disposing of his time to listen and encourage the artists who came to see him and ask him for advice.

When in 1936, Pierre Jaques graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Geneva with honors, he traveled throughout the Geneva basin with a clear predilection for the foot of the Jura. But it was quickly towards the Pays de Gex that he turned and painted until his death. He knows every nook and cranny of it to such an extent that his friends nickname our region, “the Land of Jaques”.

When, at the end of the 1960s, he and his family * had to leave his house in the Montbrillant district **, which was set to be demolished, it was only natural that he directed his research towards the Pays de Gex. He finally finds the place of his dreams: a house surrounded by orchards, the famous house of Versonnex, a meeting place for painters who have come to ask him for advice.

Before moving to Versonnex, he had already introduced his two children, from a young age, to our region, giving them pencils and paper so that they could draw at the same time as him.

Pierre Jaques painted our campaign in all seasons, on the ground, even in the cold or in the snow. Despite everything, spring remains his favorite season and its flowering fruit trees are among his most beautiful paintings. During the exhibition, among the fifty paintings presented, twenty-eight will be landscapes of the Pays de Gex.