PAUL JOUVE 1878-1973
DR
In the time when the School of Fine Arts and official or special academies promote the study of human model, Paul Jouve, influenced by his father, prominent landscape painter and portraitist, shows more interest in study of animal models. Since his childhood, his father took him to Paris museums, to Jardin d’Acclimatation et Jardin des Plantes. At the age of 16, simultaneously with his art studies, Paul Jouve learns the art of gravure and the lithography at Henri Patrice Dillon and also exhibits his drawing of Lions of Abyssinia in famous Salon of French Artists in 1894. These wild creatures that the Emperor of Ethiopia offered to the President of the Republic are captured as a motive by this artist while in Jardin des Plantes. In search of live models, he will keep coming his entire career in Jardin des Plantes, also visiting zoos and slaughterhouses or observing wildlife during exotic trips. He was then noticed by Renée Binet, the architect in charge of the construction of many buildings at Universal Exhibition in 1900, who for this occasion ordered Jouve to decorate the monumental gateway, which he did with a significant frieze in sandstone made by Alexandre Bigot. In 1903 he dedicated to the artist one glowing article of 10 pages in Art and Decoration where he said the following about his work : "Using his unique intuition, Jouve knew how to make visible the architectural aspect of big cats, his drawings weren’t a naive reproduction of the impression made by mane or fur of these beautiful animals. His eye didn’t pay attention to these details ; he was only interested in the structure, the nature expressed by his crayon took the form of bronze, of Assyrian or Egyptian bronze". This is a tremendous basis for the start of already promising career. The support of the Gallery Bing where he exhibited his work in 1905 enables him to finance his travels to Europe and Algeria. Numerous trips he undertook during his life thanks to awarded scholarships (Algeria (1907-1909), Equatorial Africa (1931) or Far-East (Angkor, South India
Gaston Suisse and Paul Jouve caress the panther in the Jardin des Plantes around 1960
in 1922-1923)) ; or historical events, like those in Greece - Mount Athos and Thessaloniki - during the First World War, enabled him to record new terminology and numerous graphic and animaliers repertoires that his talent of drawer, illustrator, engraver and sculptor fantastically depicts. After two years he spent as a resident of villa Abd-El-Tiff, in Alger, equivalent of villa Medicis in Florence, Paul Jouve comes back to Paris and exhibits in 1911 in the Gallery of Modern Artists over one hundred thirty drawings and four sculptures, one of which being "Singe à la statuette". A strong composition grounds this enigmatic sculpture of a seated dogfaced baboon whose facial expression is inscrutable and who is holding a statue of a mummified baboon in its hand. The mummified dog-faced baboon represents the god Thot who, as a deity associated with writers, presided over the last judgment where the weight of the deceased’s soul’s good and evil actions were measured on a divine scale. The mastery of the artist is evident through his exquisite sculptural rendering of this monkey’s intrigued and mesmerized expression, one that is almost human. As the monkey observes an anthropomorphic version of his own self, we are invited to reflect upon a time when some animals were so revered that they served as a bridge between men and gods. The press is unanimous and acknowledges
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