Mer Jaune, Circa 1975

Jacques Despierre  

Son of the painter Edmond Ceria, Jacques Despierre was introduced to painting very early on. He began to study at the Colarossi Academy, then at the Scandinavian Academy where he followed the teaching of Charles Dufresne who professed the need for a structured architecture in the organization of the painting. Despierre entered the Beaux-Arts in the studio of Lucien Simon in 1929. At the Louvre, he admired Chardin, Corot and especially Delacroix. At the request of his father, Despierre began engraving at the same time and illustrated his first work in 1930.

His friendships with Gruber, Tailleux, Tal Coat, Lasne, Brayer, Humblot and especially Rohner are synonymous with emulation. In the galleries, Despierre discovered Picasso, Bonnard and Matisse then he met Jacques Villon, Charles Despiau and Marcel Gromaire whom he admired. Thanks to the architect Jean-Charles Moreux, he discovered that “the surface is both a concrete and abstract phenomenon", a subject that he explored in greater depth by reading Mattila Ghycka.

His first exhibition took place at Jeanne Castel in 1938, the year he won the Paul Guillaume Prize. During and after the war, he produced decorative art works: painted furniture and tapestries for Jacques Adnet, frescoes for the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris, then for the liners La Marseillaise and Ile de France in particular. Many public establishments will follow throughout his career.

Despierre regularly exhibits at the Galerie Charpentier, at the Galerie de l'Elysée, then at René Drouet and at Marcel Guiot twice. The criticism is laudatory, particularly Waldemar Georges, George Besson, Pierre Cabanne and Jean Bouret who praise his work. In 1969, Despierre was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts and the following year, the Paris Gallery dedicated a display to him around views of the Loire, Greek gardens and bathers. Seven years later, the Wildenstein gallery exhibited a set of views of Greece and paintings of horses. Tributes were paid to him in 1973 at the Paris Mint and the following year in Saint-Etienne. Present in numerous Salons such as Tuileries, Automne, Comparisons, Painters Witnesses of their Time, School of Paris, Despierre is a founding member of the Salon de Mai, to which he gives his name.

In the manner of Renaissance artists, Despierre likes to approach all techniques: he creates wall paintings and mosaics, illustrates works, designs carpets and tapestries for the Mobilier National and vase decorations for Sèvres, creates the stained glass windows of Notre-Dame de Liesse and 80 medals for the Paris Mint. Appreciated by young people and a teacher by nature, Despierre succeeded Gromaire as head of the mural art workshop at the School of Decorative Arts, and introduced the teaching of frescoes and mosaics.

His works are notably preserved at the Center Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Musée des Beaux-arts d'Orléans, the Musée de Grenoble, the Mobilier National and the Victoria & Albert Museum.