Background

Jacques Villon, born as Emile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp, came to the world on July 31, 1875, in Damville, Normandy, France. He was one of six children in a wealthy family of Justin Isidore Duchamp and Lucie Caroline Nicolle.

Many of Villon’s relatives were related to the art. His maternal grandfather Emile Frederic Nicolle was an engraver and prosperous businessman. A couple of Villon’s younger brothers, Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and his younger sister, Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti, chose the profession of artists.

Jacques Villon created his first etching at the age of sixteen. It was the portrait of his father.

Education

Jacques Villon took his first art lessons from his maternal grandfather Emile Frederic Nicolle who taught him engraving and printmaking.

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Lycée Pierre-Corneille in 1894, Jacques accompanied his younger brother Raymond on his way to Paris. While at the capital of France, Villon began to study law at the University of Paris. Soon, the young man realized he was more inclined to art. His father allowed him to attend art classes only simultaneously with law ones.

However, the year following his arriving, Villon left the University and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts). He also attended the Atelier Cormon this time.

In 1904, Villon pursued his artistic training at the Julian Academy. He spent one year at the institution.

Career

Jacques Villon started his artistic career in 1895 when he relocated to Paris with his younger brother Raymond. Since then, he earned his living as an illustrator producing color prints, posters and caricatures for various magazines and newspapers, often on politics, including ‘Le Courrier français’ (The French Courier).

In 1903, Villon found himself as a co-founder of the alternative association of the Paris Salon dubbed the Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon). He took part in the organization of the drawing section at its first exhibition. Two years later, the artist demonstrated his artworks at the group exhibition at the Galerie Legrip in Rouen along with his brother Raymond.

Tired of the bustle rhythm of Monmartre, Villon relocated to more calm part of Paris, commune of Puteaux. He continued to develop his skills in printmaking experimenting with drypoint and began to devote more time to painting. The early canvases he created were made in style of Neo-Impressionism. Soon, he started to combine the simple geometric forms of cubism with bright colors.

In 1911, Jacques Villon and his cubist colleagues and friends, including Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Francis Picabia, Robert Delaunay, and Fernand Léger, established an art association gathering artists and critics who had a possibility to discuss art and share their views. Soon, the group received a title of Puteaux Group and later was dubbed Section d'Or (Golden Section). The name was proposed by Villon to reflect the interest of the group members to geometric proportions. The debut exhibition of the group took place at the Galerie La Boétie in October 1912.

The following year, Jacques Villon participated at the New York Armory Show presenting nine of his paintings. The show provided him with an international acclaim. At the outbreak of the First World War, the artist joined the French army.

The debut solo exhibition of the artist was organized after the War in 1921 at the Societé Anonyme (Anonymous society) in New York City.

Between two wars, Jacques Villon earned money as a printmaker producing the replicas of other artist’s works in the form of etchings. He didn’t drop painting activity and created a lot of abstract canvases, such as Colour Perspective of 1922.

Villon began to collaborate with different art galleries during the 1930s, including the Abstraction-Création group in Paris, the Brummer Gallery in New York City and Arts Club of Chicago.

After the Second World War, Jacques Villon obtained recognition as a notable artist at various international exhibitions. The success started from the important show at the Parisian Louis Carré Gallery in 1944. The gallery would represent his art the subsequent years.

In 1955, Villon participated at the decoration of the stained-glass window for the Cathedral of Saint Stephen of Metz along with Marc Chagall and Roger Bissière. The important exhibitions of the decade included the Carnegie International of 1950 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1953, the Venice Biennale of 1956 and the show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum the following year. All shows were successful for the artist.

In his last paintings, Villon united the color palette of impressionism with Cubist forms. Till the end of his life, Jacques Villon combined his painting activity with printmaking.

Achievements

• Jacques Villon was an accomplished artist who was recognized both as an artist and printmaker.
  
  Working with prints, he elaborated the graphic language for this medium. As a prolific printmaker, he produced about 600 lithographs, engravings and etchings, including the illustrations of the writings by Jean Racine, Hesiod and Virgil.
  
  Villon co-founded such important art associations as Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon) and Section d'Or (Golden Section).
  
  During his lifetime, the artist received such prestigious awards as Carnegie Prize from the Carnegie Museum of Art, Venice Biennale Grand Prix and the National Order of the Legion of Honour (three times).
  
  Nowadays, Villon’s artworks can be seen at many public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, the National Library of France in Paris and the Musée Jenisch in Switzerland. Some pieces of art by Villon are in private collections, such as the Joachim Collection of Chicago, the Vess Collection of Detroit and the Ginestet Collection of Paris.
  
  In 2004, Villon’s painting ‘L'Acrobate’ (The Acrobat) was purchased at Sotheby's in New York City for $1,296,000.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Girl on Balcony

  • Parisian

  • Untitled

  • The Equilibrist

  • Italian Woman, After Modigliani

  • The Bride, after Duchamp

  • The Armchair

  • Composition

  • Smoke and Blooming Trees

  • Poplars

  • Soldiers on the Move

  • 4th Bucolic, Pollion (from Les Bucoliques)

  • Birds in Flight

  • May

  • Phaedra and Hyppolite

  • Portrait of the Artist

  • The Game of Solitaire

  • Little Girl on a Red Staircase

  • Bibi Shining Shoes

• poster

  • The Cricket, American Bar

Membership

• American Academy of Arts and Letters , United States

• Golden Section Group

  Section d'Or group , France

  1911

Personality

Jacques Villon took his pseudonym after the French poet François Villon in order not to reveal his family’s surname when he worked as an illustrator for various political periodicals.

Interests

• Artists

  Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Connections

Jacques Villon married Gabrielle Boeuf on October 1913.

Father:

Justin Isidore Duchamp

Mother:

Lucie Caroline Nicolle

Brother:

Marcel Duchamp

Brother:

Raymond Duchamp-Villon

Sister:

Suzanne Duchamp

Grandfather:

Emile Frédéric Nicolle

colleague:

Fernand Léger

colleague:

Jean Metzinger

colleague:

Francis Picabia

References

• Brothers Duchamp: Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp A book by Pierre Cabanne
  1981
• Jacques Villon And His Cubist Prints This catalogue from the Philadelphia Museum of Art places Villon's cubist prints in their proper perspective and includes a critical essay about his work
• Jacques Villon. Cubist Work on Paper Extensively referenced, the book focuses specifically on Villon’s 53 Cubist-related images, and discusses the influence of the "Section d'Or" on the artist's working method
  2013
• The Duchamp Family of Artists The book is devoted to the entire Duchamp family, from their maternal grandfather Émile Nicolle, to their sister Suzanne
  2014
• The Art of Jacques Villon 1899-1922 A book by Simon Hansen includes twenty color paintings by Jacques Villon
  2016