Bather - Adolphe PÉTERELLE (1874-1947)

An oil on canvas measuring 61X50 cm (without the frame) representing a bather signed by Adolphe Péterelle (1874-1947)
Adolphe-Jules Péterelle is a French painter of Swiss origin born on June 26, 1874 in Geneva and died on October 27, 1947 (at age 73) in Paris.
Adolphe-Jules Péterelle was born on 26 June 1874 in Geneva, in the district of Eaux-Vives. In 1875, his mother, Marceline, died. In 1881 his father entrusted him to a sister of his wife, a woman whom the child accompanies to the religious services. In 1886 he decided to become a painter and attended classes at the Geneva School of Fine Arts from 1887 to 1891. In 1891, at the age of 17, he freed himself from the authority of his aunt and Leaves Switzerland for Paris, whose artistic bubbling fascinates him. He continues to paint, especially at night, and works as a decorator. In 1898, he was welcomed on rue Caulaincourt by the animal painter Henri Deluermoz, in his studio recently abandoned by Steinlen. After the departure of Deluermoz for the province, Adolphe-Jules Péterelle moved to the Bateau-Lavoir in 1900, where he frequented Steinlen, Aristide Bruant and Picasso. From 1900 to 1904, he worked on the pottery decoration of Choisy-le-Roi where he met Émile Lenoble, who supplied drawings for faience. A friendship of forty years will bind them. About 1808 - 1809, it settles definitely Cité Falguière. With the sculptor Joseph Bernard, he studied at length the theme of dance. If the painter has long been interested in nude and maternity, it is to better translate the inner light of being, sometimes even its cosmic dimension, hidden beneath the carnal envelope. In 1914, Adolphe-Jules Péterelle entered the Foreign Legion and left for the front. He is naturalized French. In 1915, buried by the explosion of a mine in the Somme, he loses sight and is directed to Saint-Brieuc where constant care allows him to recover a partial view, but he loses an eye. Adolphe-Jules Péterelle returns to her studio in the Falguière city. He marries and has two children. Man-sandwich by day, he constructs at night a poignant work: nudes, landscapes, flowers, dancers, moving mobs, ghosts of flesh and vibrant feeling of a fire of embers. He gathered around him a circle of amateurs attracted by his work. In 1921, first exhibition Peterelle at L'Inrier where its organizer Roger Dévigne, writer, installed his hand press. First article in the press. In 1926, an exhibition of his works was organized by a group of friends at the café Le Petit Napolitain in Paris; It arouses the admiration of certain intellectuals of the Left Bank. From then on, the merchants of paintings are alerted. One of them wants to acquire all the finished canvases of his studio, but Peterelle refuses. In 1927, the sculptor François Pompon, who became his most intimate friend, acquired a woman's face, the art dealer Charron bought several hundred paintings over two years, paintings left for Switzerland and the United States, a First oil passes to Drouot. During his exhibition Galerie Bernheim (Paris, 1930), Péterelle is 56 years old. The sculptor Robert Wlérick realizes his portrait in bronze. He will remain his friend for life, as well as Pierre Bonnard met in 1932 who buys Le Tambourinaire. He frequents Kisling, Derain, Gromaire, Dufresne ... Made Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1938, Péterelle receives important orders from the State. It is the subject of two exhibitions: one at the Galerie Charpentier, and the other at the Galerie de France.
Adolphe-Jules Péterelle died on October 27, 1947 in Paris, at the age of 73 years. Present in several museums in France (including the Center Pompidou [ref.]) And abroad (the Metropolitan in New York), he leaves the image of a discreet "modern master" whose work in musical nuances And poetic creates a universe of intense emotion that must be understood, understood and penetrated.