Joseph de La Nézière (1873–1944)Akoun 2004 was a French painter noted for painting Orientalist scenes and for his work with the French Colonial Office and its program to reform the arts industries in colonial France.
Biography
Joseph de La Nézière was born in Bourges, France in 1873 and was born into a talented family. His brother, Raymond de La Nézière (1865–1953) became an illustrator.L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.18 His younger brother, Georges de la Nézière was killed in action in the first World War. As a child, Joseph was a very good student and learned piano, violin and Latin-Greek. He studied painting with artist, Alfred Roll, a member of the Beaux-Arts Academy.
La Nézière traveled extensively in North Africa and the Far East and became a well-known Orientalist artist. He was a member of the Geographic Society.
He held various administrative roles with the French Colonial office which had embarked on a sophisticated program to reform the arts industries in colonial France. La Nézière employed many Orientalist painters to assist him and also employed both men and women in equal numbers.Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880-1930, University of California Press, 2003, pp 203-04 In around 1919, he headed a project based in Rabat, Morocco to produce some 300 Oriental rugs under the auspices of the Office des Industries d'Artes Indigenes. Destined for sale on the French market, these rugs were sold immediately and were enormously popular. They became known as the "Middle Atlas" rug.Pouillion, F. and Vatin, J-C. (eds), After Orientalism: Critical Perspectives on Western Agency and Eastern Re-appropriations, BRILL, 2014, p. 225; Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880–1930, University of California Press, 2003, pp 203-04
He was a member French Society of Orientalist Painters and regularly exhibited at their Paris exhibitions.Benjamin, R., Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880-1930, University of California Press, 2003, p. 204; Jay, M and Ramaswamy, S., Empires of Vision: A Reader, Duke University Press, 2014, p. 128
As the official painter for the French Colonial Office,L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.18 he was commissioned in 1910 to illustrate the stamps for the postal service of French North African colonies. He also created a series of famous posters for the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931.
In 1943, he returned to France with his student, Henri Marie-Rose, but before long he once again travelled to Morocco where he died on April 15, 1944, in Casablanca, Morocco.L'Étang, G. and Arsaye, J-P., La Peinture en Martinique, HC, 2007, p.23
Work He worked as a portrait painter, landscape painter, poster artist, travel journalist, and diorama painter, and made postage stamps for France, the Middle East and Africa. He illustrated the book Siamese Life Scenes by Louis P. Rivière. He also authored a number of books which were richly illustrated with his artwork. His principal medium was watercolour.
Selected artwork
Books L'Extrême-Orient en images: Sibérie, Chine, Corée, Japon Paris, 1904 Les Monuments Mauresques du Maroc, Volume 1, A. Lévy, 1922 La Décoration Marocaine A. Calavas, 1924
See also List of Orientalist artists Orientalism
Notes
Sources
Akoun 2004, la Cote de l'Amateur publishing, p. 470 The Globe Trotter, 1912. "New Stamps for the French Colonies", p. 92 the French Post Museum website, France
External links the French Post Museum website, France