Jean Pierre Cassigneul (1935)
Women and flowery summer gardens: these are Jean-Pierre Cassigneul's favourite subjects. Women play an all-pervading role in his work. Or as the famous art historian Roger Passeron describes it: 'Women are the raison d'etre of his art'. Of Cassigneul's more than 350 lithographic works, only six do not feature a female figure.
The artist manages to portray them in a seductive way, often alone, and with a profile, and with a serious, almost sober expression. The fascination for women probably begins in his childhood.
Cassigneul's house was regularly filled with beautiful models because his father was a famous couturier. At the age of 13 Cassigneul won a competition for sand art.
While his contemporaries mainly focused on making sand castles, Cassigneul created a painting on which a naked lady posed lying down.
By the way, Cassigneul has made few naked women in his work. He prefers to portray them in beautiful clothes, with large hats and preferably in colour. Striking in his work are the expressionist influences of artists such as Van Dongen, Bonnard and Vuillard from the beginning of the 20th century. Cassigneul has had success throughout his life.
He held his first exhibition at the age of 17, studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and from 1965 he had a long-term contract with the Gallerie Bellechasse in Paris. Since then he has exhibited all over Europe, Japan and the United States. He himself says about his choice of subject: 'Women and gardens, these two subjects are a natural choice for me.
They will certainly have to do with my childhood and my background. But most importantly, I like to draw women, and gardens, and women in gardens'.
