Jean Dries (born Jean Driesbach; October 19, 1905 – February 26, 1973) was a French painter. He became a Parisian painter when he studied under Lucien Simon at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, through his adventures in the "zone",The « zone » was the name commonly used for the zone Non ædificandi an area where the ring road around Paris was built but which in the 1920s was occupied by gardens and military huts. setting up several studios before finally settling in the Île Saint-Louis at 15 quai d'Anjou.
He was also a Provençal painter since he spent time in Provence following in the steps of Cézanne and Van Gogh in the 1930s and set up his last studio in Aurel, Vaucluse.
He can also be considered a painter from Normandy where he was drawn by his friends Jean Jardin and Edmond Duchesne and where he bought a house for his family in 1936. From 1953 to 1973 he was the curator of the Eugène Boudin Museum in Honfleur which still has some of his works on display.
As Dries believed that art transcended national borders he never stopped travelling outside of France and Europe. His admiration for Spanish and Italian masters led him to Spain and Italy. He taught art at the French colonial school in Sétif (Algeria) for a few months and was sent by the French government to Mendoza (Argentina) in the spring of 1940 to set up pictorial art studies at the University of Cuyo and to promote French culture.
Esthetically, he proclaimed himself to be totally independent. Starting in 1928 he exhibited in various Parisian Salons – Salon d'automne, Salon des Tuileries, Salon des indépendants – and steadfastly refused to be part of any school, style or genre. He painted landscapes, portraits, self-portraits, nudes, still lifes, seascapes, horse races and bullfights.
Although tempted by Impressionism, Cubism and especially Fauvism, he never gave into abstraction or non-figurative art. In his Blue Notebook he wrote "One cannot do without nature. One must neither torture it or oneself."Jean Dries, blue notebook (cahier bleu), p.75. This blue notebook, found after his death, and written probably in 1956 contains hand-written notes by Dries covering the period from 1905 to 1950. It was edited in 1983 by the Musée de Bar-le-Duc under the title « Jean Dries ». He was a great colorist while remaining attentive to the balance of composition. It has been said of him that he was a "fauve Cézanne".Janine Warnod in the catalogue of Jean Dries works exposed in the Musée Eugène Boudin, p.5
Biography
Jean Driesbach was born in Bar-le-Duc in Meuse, France. Nothing in his family background predisposed him to become a painter. His mother's family (from Lorraine and Franche-Comté) had no ties to the art world. His paternal grandparents who had been wine growers near Colmar in the Haut-Rhin decided to leave Alsace in 1871 to remain French and had settled in Bar-le-Duc where his father was a bailiff.
Driesbach successfully completed his secondary studies despite two interruptions due to the war. The German advances in 1914-15 and in 1917-18 forced the family to seek refuge near Granville (Manche) in Normandy. This was where Dries first tried his hand at drawing and first saw the sea: "Deeply moved by the sea, played among the rocks, the port of Granville" he wrote.Blue notebook, p.5
1921 was a turning point in his life. His father died after a long illness and he was forced to work for the master glass-maker GambutThe studio Gambut, rue des Ducs was short-lived but left a lasting impression on the young Dries and his later work. to help his family. He himself had a serious spinal injury (it immobilized him in a plaster cast for 8 months) and from which he suffered for the rest of his life. "I pass the time painting still-lifes and portraits." His talent came to the attention of his friend the future engraver Paul Lemagny and was encouraged by his philosophy teacher, Pierre Salzi, who introduced him to the painter Jules-Emile Zingg.
The formative years 1926–1930
With the financial help of the alumni association of the lycée in Bar-le-Duc (200F) and the town (800F) as well as a loan on trust from the Meuse department, Driesbach left Lorraine for Paris. There he studied at the Ecole des Beaux arts with Auguste Laguillermie and Lucien Simon.Blue notebook p.9 He soon got a room at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris where he made many friends and discovered music. "That's where I first heard Beethoven and Mozart".Blue notebook p. 10 At the school he made some lifelong friends, including Paul Arzens. At this time out of financial necessity he painted doll faces and bonbonnieres.
Work
In Paris, Driesbach, who was starting to be called Jean Dries, attended the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts but also the art academies in Montparnasse where he drew a great deal. He also went to museums where he was very "impressed by Courbet and Cézanne."Blue notebook, p.11 Looking for nature to paint, he explored the outskirts of Paris, the banks of the Seine, the "zone", Saint-Cloud and Ville d'Avray.« On July 18th, 1930, Lucien Simon reports on the progress his pupil is making on works done... outside of school. » (email from E. Schwartz, archivist at the ENSBA dated June 1st, 2012) His drawing talent was recognized in 1926 when he won first prize for a live model in modern dress for Un franciscainReproduced plate XCI in La Grande Masse January 1927 and in 1927 he obtained a teaching certificate for drawing.
Holidays
During the holidays at home in Bar-le-Duc, Dries painted the countryside (Les bords de l'Ornain, La forêt de Massonges), tried his hand at portraits (his two sisters) and also his first large scale compositions: Trois nus dans un paysage (1927), and Le déjeuner en forêt (1928) "Painting has never given me so much pleasure" he wrote.Blue notebook p.17 He also made his first journeys. In 1928 he traveled through Auvergne and the South of France (Avignon and Nîmes). It was however his trip in February 1929 to Cassis which made the deepest impression on him, "a marvelous journey, my dearest memory".Blue notebook p.19 While studying in London at the Institut de France in February–March 1929, he met Jean Jardin who would become his lifelong friend. Together they discovered the British Museum, the National Gallery and Dutch painting (Rembrandt, Van Gogh).Pierre Assouline, Une éminence grise, p.31-32 Finally in 1930 with another close friend, Alexandre Marc-Lipianski, he visited Spain: its landscapes and of course its museums, "What emotion Velasquez and Goya inspire".Blue notebook p. 21
Setting up as an artist
Early recognition
In 1928, while still a student, Dries exhibited his first large-scale paintings at the Salon d'Automne and at the Salon des Indépendants and in 1931 when just 26 he exhibited L'Atelier which he had painted the year before. These submissions drew the attention of the criticsSee for example the articles concerning the Salons from 1928 to 1931 by Néhac in L'Est Républicain or by Thiébault-Sisson in Le Temps who devoted long articles to his work: in November 1932 Thiébault-Sisson wrote in Le Temps "Dries is a born painter and I know of few talents as promising as his."Thiébault-Sisson, Le Temps, Nov. 11, 1931 n° 25646 p. 3, col. 1,2 In 1929 his first individual exhibition was hung in the staircase of the Comédie des Champs-Elysées (47 paintings and watercolours) and for the first time in 1930 the French Government bought one of his paintings: Sous-bois dans la Meuse. Recognized by critics, appreciated by private and public collectors, in 1936 Dries was acknowledged by his peers when he met the painter Vlaminck who asked to see some of his work and ended the visit with these words "The carp's not bad. You're a painter."Vlaminck's visit is recorded in detail in the Blue notebook p.37-39.
Paris and Honfleur
In 1930 he set up in Paris near the Porte d'Orléans and had his mother and two sisters join him. At the same time he bought a house for them in Honfleur, where they lived until 1961. He had been drawn there by his friends Jean Jardin and Edmond Duchesne, but for someone who was in love with the South of France the first contact was difficult, “Everything seemed lackluster and listless... It would take me years to get over this distaste, to become aware of the delicacy of the landscapes of northwestern France, the cradle of impressionism.”Blue notebook P. 25 He continued to travel in late 1935 to take up a teaching position at the colonial school in Sétif Algeria. Disappointed by the few months he spent there he came back with only a few sketches, “I was disoriented by orientalism” he decided.Blue notebook p. 35 He was more inspired by the trips he made to Italy and Switzerland (1932) and to Spain where he spent two weeks in Cadaquès, “I sometimes met the painter Salvador Dali. He had a house there and shocked the locals by the way he dressed.”Blue notebook p. 27 A long journey in 1937 in particular took him to Cassis, Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in memory of Van Gogh. He also went to Tuscany and Rome to see his friend Paul Lemagny and discovered Corot's landscapes. In 1938 he had a major retrospective exhibition at the Charpentier Gallery including 84 paintings and 21 watercolors covering this period.
Maturity 1938–1964
At 33 Dries was a recognized artist, exhibiting regularly in shows and art galleries. His works were bought by private collectors, the City of Paris and the French government. He had houses and studios in Paris and Honfleur.
World War II and the years following