Artist : janie michels (1920 - 2009)

Title : Canon Castle Lovers

Technical and support: Oil on canvas 

Features of the work: Original painting signed lower right 

Dimensions: 60cm x 73cm

State : Good

Origin : artist studio, the invoice engages the responsibility of the gallery as to the authenticity of the work.

Expert's comment: What we immediately notice in the works of janie michels is the elegance specific to this artist of character who is above all an independent woman. It is not surprising that the line of "the countess of the chapel" who will be the official painter of the court of Belgium is lively, expressive but also imbued with a certain lightness. On the canvas, this lively gesture combined with the softness of the colors constitutes the main characteristic of the artist's style. With her subjects, janie michels gives us a glimpse of a modern world that is both fabulous and a little out of time, nostalgic for the 19th century or Greek antiquity. We understand her painting better when we know that her spiritual fathers were James Ensor and henri matisse , for whom she was the model and pupil for 14 years. She borrows from Ensor the taste for light and dazzling colors, but it is in her interiors and her still lifes that the influence of the master Matisse is most significant. We find there this freedom of drawing specific to the artist but also a palette of softened fawn colors. Painting flowers is an opportunity for the artist to bathe in color and seek out all of its hues. The artist also invites us with class but without pretension to enter his intimacy populated by famous characters from the artistic world, beautiful properties in which evolve his favorite animals: horses and cats. She takes us on a walk in this Normandy that we appreciate so much, the countryside of the Pays d'Auge and the seaside (Deauville, Trouville and Honfleur…). Throughout her career, she kept a taste for portraiture and remained faithful to the technique taught by Matisse. She begins with a classic charcoal drawing then refines to find the essential line. janie michels will also keep as a treasure the letters of the Master in which he lavished his advice.

Biography : Of Belgian and Dutch origin, janie michels was eight years old when she encountered painting in Ostend in James Ensor's studio populated by carnival masks, skeletons and shells. She studied at the School of Fine Arts in Brussels and then fled occupied Belgium for the south of France in 1940. Determined to meet Matisse, she goes to the master but is refused entry by his wife. She then leaves a portfolio of drawings and her telephone number. The quality of his drawings and the originality of the artist's style prompted Matisse to invite him. She will become his model and his pupil until his death in 1954. In the 1950s, she met Maurice Chevalier, whose portrait she painted and with whom she settled for a while to paint. In 1978, she moved to Saint-Gatien near Honfleur where she rediscovered the light of her native Belgium and Holland. The artist will exhibit in Paris at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d'Automne of which she is a member. Numerous private exhibitions were organized on the artist in Paris, New York and in Normandy. Several establishments will host his works regularly: Madame Blais' establishment, the famous Hôtel de l'Ecrin rue Eugene Boudin in Honfleur, the Château de Pinterville, property of Princess Marguerite Tran and the Pennedepie farm inn. His works are present in the Osaka museum in Japan and in the famous Pouchkine museum in Moscow which has the most beautiful collection of Matisse in the world. She entered Bénézit in 1953 with a biography signed by the writer Paul Guth. At that time, she was represented by the Galerie David rue Matignon alongside Bernard Buffet and Jean Carzou.