Tête grise et orange, 1983

Jean Roulland  

Jean Roulland is one of the main protagonists of the Roubaix Group alongside Arthur Van Hecke, Eugène Dodeigne and Eugène Leroy.

He studied at the Roubaix School of Fine Arts. After working in a ceramics factory, he devoted himself full-time to sculpture from 1960 onwards, moving to the Ardèche region for a few years between 1963 and 1967, before returning to settle permanently in French Flanders. Influenced in his youth by the work of Brancusi, he created a few sculptures in wood, ceramic, and stone before developing his own, much more expressionistic style from 1961 onwards. Fascinated by bronze, he taught himself the lost-wax casting technique and cast the first version of most of his bronzes himself in his studio. Alongside this, he developed a body of painted work (a few canvases, but mainly pastels), as well as engravings.

Occasionally, he produced some terracotta works, before creating from 1995 onwards an important series of terracotta heads.

Jean Roulland received the Rodin and Lenchener prizes in 1972 in Paris and, in 1981, the Special Prize, 1st Kotaro Takamura Grand Prize, Hakone (Japan). In 1991, a major retrospective of his sculptural work from 1961 to 1991 was held at the Hospice Comtesse in Lille. Jean Roulland received the Maria Pilar de la Béraudière Sculpture Prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts on November 17, 2010, awarded in memory of Paul-Louis Weiller, which recognizes his entire body of work.

In 2013, a very important retrospective coordinated between several museums was dedicated to him: Museum of Fine Arts of Calais, Hospice Comtesse in Lille, Church of Nouvelle-Église, Museum "La Piscine" in Roubaix.