Jan Balet

The German-American born artist mastered both brush and pen. Often with a sense of whimsy and always with a keen eye and deft hand, Balet created images that continue to elevate the spirit and challenge the imagination.

Jean Balet in July 1913 in Bremen and died in January 2009 in Estavayer-le-Lac in Switzerland, was a German-American painter, graphic artist and illustrator. Influenced by the naïve style, he worked in particular as a graphic artist and illustrator of children's books. In addition, he painted pictures in the naïve style. Described as a "naïve" painter, his works present a deadpan humor and a refreshing, candid and satirical vision of life.

Balet was the son of German-Dutch parents. After his parents divorced in 1916, he moved with his mother to his mother's hometown of Langenargen on Lake Constance in Germany. His grandfather was the chief legal advisor of the region, Eduard Eggert, and his uncle was the famous painter and illustrator Benno Eggert. Many well-known personalities of the time were friends of his grandfather, including the painters Hans Purrmann, Karl Caspar, Maria Caspar-Filser (his mother's cousin), the writer Martin Andersen Nexo, the Swabian poet Wilhelm Schussen, and the poet and writer Oskar Wöhrle, Balet's godfather. In 1920, his grandfather sold the house in Langenargen and the family moved to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

In 1920, Balet entered school. Due to the difficulties his mother and grandmother had in raising him after his grandfather's death, Balet was sent to a boarding school in Germany in 1926, the Schloss Salem school. In 1927, Balet moved to the Hansa Home, a strictly Catholic institution in Munich, and attended high school. To begin an apprenticeship in a painting workshop, Balet left school before the end of the sixth grade. He ended his apprenticeship before the end of the second year.

In 1929, at the age of 17, he moved to Berlin at the invitation of his father and studied drawing at the University of Arts and Crafts. A year later, he moved to Munich with his mother and grandmother. Balet continued his studies at the University of Arts in Munich, but was expelled in 1932. He continued his studies with Professor Ege at a private school for commercial art. During this time, he also worked at a lithography institute and for the Wallach Art Gallery. Balet rented his first small studio at the age of nineteen, where he made and sold hand-coloured Bavarian woodcuts. In 1934, he passed the entrance examination for the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and continued his studies with Olaf Gulbransson.