Apart from his various travels abroad and his domestic trips, Colin did not look far for his subjects. Most of the time, he simply painted themes with views, figures and objects that were available in his immediate surroundings at that very moment. He used everything around him. He even repeated certain images more than once, albeit by introducing variations. We also often see the same objects again, such as the wooden dressing-table mirror, included in – among other paintings – the nudes #015 and #022, and that one upholstered chair in #015, #022 and #024. Even that everyday little red beach bucket was allowed time and again to allude to the joys of children playing (#073, #077 and #079). As well as a certain vase, a small ceramic box with a lid, a dish, a birdcage (#022), a black lace shawl (#035), a red coral necklace (#045) etc. A number of these Colin attributes are so characteristic that, if one is in doubt about the authenticity of an unsigned work – even though a Colin is usually an unmistakable Colin –, the last remnants of doubt are removed when one recog- nises one of these characteristic objects and/or figures. Consequently, on his death most of these characteristic objects were still in his studio. Certain paintings served as a design for a larger, more elaborate version. One example to denote Colin’s simple sources of inspiration is the scene La Joie de vivre [The joy of living], of which a draft version (#102) and La Joie de vivre, the finished version (#103) also exist. We already recognise the small garden bench on the right, of which Colin made gratifying use. If one takes a cursory look at these canvases, one gets the impression that the large version depicts six figures, namely two mothers and their children. However, what we see is a repetition of two times three models, which Colin – as usual – found in his immediate surroundings. The mother on the left was Hortensia and her imagined children were two local children. First, Colin painted one side of the canvas, with the three models mentioned included. After that, they had to change clothes and Hortensia changed her hairstyle to pose again. Next, Colin painted the other half of the canvas. Except for the figures’ clothes and Hortensia’s hairstyle, the similarities are indeed striking. The final result resembles a pleasant get-together of sisters or neighbours and their children. This in accordance with Colin’s motto ‘Why make things difficult for yourself?’ Within that same uncomplicated approach, Colin gave his works everyday titles, mostly without any specific details. He did not set any great store by this. To a nude, he would often give the short title Nu [Nude]. Thus, he exhibited – for instance – three nudes with the same title at the Galeries du Studio in 1928: catalogue numbers 22 Nu, 25 Nu and 26 Nu. He often entitled a still life Nature morte and a painting of a girl could simply be called Fillette. His hundreds of canvases of the Roma were mostly given the following unimaginative titles: Jeune Romanichel, Romanichel, Romanichelle, Romanichels or Romanichelles. In case we know for certain that a particular work by Colin was given its name during his lifetime, we have obviously respected it and added the reference ‘o.t.’ (for ‘original title’) to the picture’s legend. The other descriptions were written posthumously. The works by Colin rarely include a year, let alone a date, and the summary entries in the numerous original exhibition catalogues offered nothing to go on to date them exactly, because usually such catalogues – which often were no more than leaflets – only gave the title, without a picture or information as to size and other data. As a result of Colin’s general – and repeatedly used – titles, we can only guess which of his creations it might refer to. Consequently, to proceed with dating or determining the approximate time of creation, we had to draw from other sources, such as reviews from original art magazines and newspapers which included pictures and/or patently obvious descriptions, a few black-and-white photographs that were retrieved from the contents of Colin’s studio on which he had written a year, his private correspondence, time-related locations where certain works were accomplished, labels from one or more exhibitions attached to the back of a canvas or a frame, photos taken in his studio that included pictures of the works and the spirit of the times in which Colin had realized a particular creation. The main source for dating, however, was Susanne Laurent, Jean Colin’s niece, who has passed down her knowledge of his oeuvre to her daughters Nicole and Huguette Lebrun. After all, wherever figures appear in a work by Colin, it was always members of his side of the family who sat for him, with the obvious exception of the commissions and the numerous paintings of southern and exotic types. Since the relatives know for certain which persons were involved in each case, we were able to determine the year of such an artwork fairly accurately on the basis of those models’ estimated age. If it involves portraits of or scenes including adults, we have allowed for a maximum margin of three years. The smaller the children that occur in a work are, the easier it is of course to estimate their age and the more exact the year that we have determined will be. We already knew that Hortensia was the model for most of the native female figures. As was mentioned earlier, those who figured as other characters, in free works, were almost always family members. An excellent example to illustrate this is the series of beach scenes. Colette couchée dans les dunes [Colette reclining in the dunes] (#075), from about 1910, is indeed about Colin’s sister Colette. In Tricoter à la plage [Knitting on the beach] (#078) from about 1915-1916, we see Horten- sia on the left and Colette in the middle, Colette’s young daughter Susanne on the right and in the background, with her feet in the seawater, her older daughter Elisabeth. Mère et filles à la plage [Mother and daughters on the beach] (#073) is a later painting, from about 1917, depicting the same persons: Susanne on the left, Colette in the middle and Elisabeth on the right. In Deux dames avec un bébé dans les dunes [Two ladies with a baby in the dunes] (#074) from about 1911, Colette is sitting on the left with baby Elisabeth on her lap and Hortensia on the right. And so on. As it may lead to confusion, we repeat that there were three Elisabeths in the Colin family: Jean’s mother, his sister who died young and one of his nieces. Ultimately, most of his relatives were to serve regularly as models for numerous paintings: apart from the figures already mentioned, there were also his father, his mother, his sister Clémence and his niece Susanne’s three children: Henri, Huguette – who was Jean’s godchild – and Nicole. If we did not have sufficient elements at our disposal to date a particular painting with a maximum margin of three years, we have not mentioned a year. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

In various publications, art critics applauded the way in which Colin depicted his female models on canvas. A few quotes: ‘What Jean Colin deals with most in his paintings, is the female figure, nude or dressed. (…) The nude is depicted on canvas in a delicate manner.’ (Gand Artistique, Maurice HALOCHE, Novem- ber 1923) ‘The works by Colin undress the young women. (…) Even when nude, they never fully part with the clothes they have taken off and when they are covered with nothing more than the strip of silk at Aphrodite’s feet, they try to wrap themselves in an embrace of cushions. Colin knows the power of the skin and of the sensual lines of a beautiful back, but he almost treats them like a naïve artist and one will find in his work no voluptuousness or an incentive to sin. In her casual naked- ness, the woman wears her beautiful flesh like a beam of light. In her mirror, one also sees her quiet face, seemingly denying the feast of her body.’ (Savoir et Beauté, Gaston HEUX, March 1924) ‘Colin also depicts women on canvas. These portraits display a great sensitivity and tender- ness: in the elegance of a gesture or in the tranquillity of an expression, in everything that expresses the grace of the female temperament the artist has managed to put the gentleness which lends such great tenderness to his work. It is even suspected that he is in permanent unity with his models.’ (Le Soir illustré, author unknown, January 1931) It is correct to say that each canvas on which Colin depicted a woman was an ode to grace, were it not for the fact that it was always the same woman. During the first years of his career, Colin’s model was a certain Louise – who figures as Eve in the canvas Idyll [Idylle] (#108) and in other works –, but around 1909 he met Hortensia. She was to become his muse for life (#097). Hortensia was orphaned while she was still in her teens. Her mother (Virginia Steylaerts) had died when she was five and her father (Jacques Martens) died in 1906. In 1907, Hortensia moved from Ghent to Brussels, where at the age of nineteen she became a dancer at the Folies Bergère vaudeville theatre, named after the eponymous Parisian cabaret. Whether Colin met her there or elsewhere we do not know, but the first portrait he painted of her that we recovered, dates from 1909, and in 1910 she gave him an engraved pocket watch to congratulate him on his Prix de Rome. Soon, Colin’s charming favourite model became his exclusive model, except for the portraits he made to order and those depicting other family members and southern women. For about three decades, Hortensia was to be his mistress. Such a relationship was not opportune in those days, but an artist could always take liberties that were not accepted in the ‘ordinary world’. They eventually got married in 1937; Jean was fifty-six at the time. Hortensia and Jean had an exceptionally loving relationship; they were in seventh heaven. They made an amiable couple, mild-mannered and generous and were doing well; he had made his pas- sion into his profession and they could manage easily on it. ‘A blissful artist,’ he was often called in the literature of the times. According to several testimonies from family members, he literally whistled his way through life and was always humming while he was painting. Each of the canvases on which Jean immortalised his Hortensia are poetic outpourings. Colin revealed himself as a minstrel painter, and the sparks were flying. He often literally expressed his boundless amorousness in thick layers of paint. Whenever Hortensia sat as a nude model (#011, #013, #015, etc.), he dressed her in a dignified way, with a skin of perceptive brushstrokes and when she was dressed he presented her in all her nakedness. Thus, he dressed her again as a dancer in – among other works – the painting Danseuse au repos [Dancer at rest], #029 and in #026. He had Hortensia play the role of a costume designer and a dresser, corresponding with his sister Colette’s occupation. In different versions of La Dame en noir [The lady in black] (#035 and #036) and other stately portraits (#033 and #034), he shows her unsurpassed elegance. Hortensia also figures in true-to-life family scenes, knitting on the beach on a fine autumn day (#074, #078, #081, etc.) and as the loveable hostess to local children (#103). Or Colin just shows Hortensia as Hortensia, an exceptionally charming lady, reading on a garden bench (#039). Ulti- mately, she served as a model for all the charms of a woman. Because Colin’s technique was such a fluent one, he could effortlessly portray everything that touched his heart. He made such dynamic paintings for himself in the first place, purely for pleasure, as if they were the diary entries of a minstrel painter. He put his heart and soul into these, even more so than in his other paintings. He could put adoration, desire and tenderness into a subtle balance with the ferocity of his brush. As a result, these works come across as sober, although they are often colourful and luxuriant. Such passionate paintings make a Colin into a genuine, unmistakable Colin and rank among his absolute masterpieces. Indeed, passion and the joy of living are characteristic of this oeuvre. He never painted sorrowful images and would never focus on pain or ugliness. Colin only opted for the picturesque and any other form of beauty life had to offer. Jean Colin died on 24 November 1961. The symbiosis with his favourite model had been severed. A short time later, on 8 June 1962, Hortensia died of heart failure. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

Right from the start, Jean Colin’s work met with appreciation. As was mentioned earlier, he received several honourable mentions and a first prize while he was still a student at the drawing school. At the beginning of his period at the Académie, the result of his course ‘Moulding from the antique torso’ by Dillens and Van der Stappen 3 was awarded the ‘Great Prize for Sculpture’. Next, he won the ‘Great Prize for Landscape Painting’ in 1906 – during his second year at the Académie – for his impressionistic rendering of Parc Josaphat, an esplanade garden in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek (#106). A year later, Colin received an honourable mention from Concours Godecharle [Godecharle Prize]7 for his painting entitled L’Eté [Summer], #109. In 1910, at the age of twenty- nine, he received the ‘Medal for Painting’ at the Brussels World Fair for one of his nudes and the Belgian ‘Prix de Rome for painting’ for his version of L’Adoration des Bergers [The adoration of the shepherds] (#110). 3 Pierre Charles Van der Stappen, or ‘Vanderstappen’ according to the register of births, deaths and marriages, was a Belgian sculptor, who mainly became well-known for his monumental sculptures for public spaces: for example, for the Jubelpark and the Kruidtuin in Brussels and the Belgian National Botanical Gardens in Meise. Julien, or ‘Juliaan’, Dillens (1849-1904) was also a Belgian sculptor and painter, aquarellist and medallist, who had studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts [Royal Academy of Fine Arts] in Brussels himself. From 1870 to 1873, Dillens worked for the renowned French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) on works commissioned by the Brussels Stock Exchange, where he met Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). In 1877, Dillens received the Prix de Rome (Belgium) for sculpture and subsequently carried out numerous orders for public statues. Throughout his career, Jean Colin was lauded by art critics both at home and abroad – and even praised to the skies – for his painting. A random selection from original publications: ‘The nudes, the flowers and the decorative compositions he paints at the beginning of our postwar period, at once classify him among the old Flemish grandmasters. (…) In his new canvases, the joy of living sings and vibrates. Young Colin confirms himself as an indisputable master.’ (Beauté, art magazine, Edouard Fonteyne, March 1922) ‘His art tends towards a great subtlety of tones, detached from mannerism and childish- ness. It is delicate and harmonious, quietly brilliant, spiritual without shrewdness, wise without any tricks and therefore flowing in style in a natural way. (…) Jean Colin is a painter who creates pleasing symphonies with animated rockets and a splattering firework of colour. (…) When Jean Colin paints a child’s portrait, he succeeds in giving that young life a permanent glow, a modest strength, an almost vegetal freshness and the peace and quiet that such an incomplete development can induce.’ (Gand Artistique, art magazine, Maurice Haloche, November 1923) ‘He delivers what he sees, he translates matter; he provides commentary and inspires it with beauty and magnificence.’ (Galeries du Studio, exhibition catalogue with a foreword by Arthur De Ridder, November 1928) ‘Each of his nudes is a poem, dedicated to feminine grace. These portraits display great sensitivity and tenderness: in the elegance of a gesture or in the stillness of an expression.’ (Le Soir Illustré, magazine, 17 January 1931) Apart from his regular participation in exhibitions of local art societies, Jean Colin was soon selected for the national salons and other exclusive exhibitions, where his work was often displayed. He joined the ranks of contemporary Belgian grandmasters such as James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946), Emile Claus (1849-1924), Rik Wouters (1882-1916) and Léon De Smet (1881-1966). Such commercial salons, in which one could only participate by invitation, were indispensible for an artist to earn his livelihood. After all, there were few other opportunities to bring the work to the attention of potential buyers, as an extensive network of galleries and art dealers did not yet exist. Jean Colin was also a welcome guest at prestigious international exhibitions of contemporary Belgian art, with countries such as the Netherlands (1925), Siam (present-day Thailand, 1926), France (1927 and 1928), Poland (1928), Latvia (1932), China (1934), Lithuania (1936), Estonia (1938) and Brazil (1946). Thus, Isy Brachot (1884-1960), a leading Belgian art critic and general editor of the art magazine L’Art Belge, organised an exhibition at the Galerie Mignon-Massart in Nantes (France) in 1928: Une sélection d’oeuvres des très réputés peintres belges [A selection of works by prominent Belgian painters]. Isy Brachot was the first in an important dynasty of gallery owners. In Brussels, he had established a commercial gallery for French artists, but he also promoted the international recognition of great names in Belgian painting at his own Brussels Galeries du Studio and elsewhere. For his prestigious Salon de l’Art belge in Nantes, Brachot had invited only four artists to exhibit their work: Camille Barthélémy 4 , Alfred Bastien 5 , Jean Colin and Jean Gouweloos 6 . 4 Camille Barthélémy (1890-1961), Belgian neoimpressionist graphic artist, painter and illustrator, well-known for his Ardennes landscapes. 5 Alfred Bastien (1873-1955), Belgian postimpressionist painter and aquarellist of portraits, still lifes and land- scapes. In 1893, he was a founding member of the artists’ association Le Sillon, which Jean Colin was to join later. In 1897, Bastien was awarded the Godecharle Prize. 6 Jean Gouweloos (1868-1943), Brussels painter of figures, nudes, seascapes and landscapes and also a poster lithographer. Gouweloos joined Le Sillon in 1895. Throughout Jean Colin’s career, the major part of his work was very much appreciated. Consequently, it sold at very high prices, certainly compared to paintings by a number of his contemporaries and fellow exhibitors. Of course, we cannot compare apples and oranges; we must also take into account quality, technical realization, subject matter, size and fashionable aspects. Nevertheless, Colin’s canvases often sold at remarkably high prices. For instance, in one copy of the 1931 catalogue of the Cercle Artistique de Tournai [Tournai Art Society], selling prices for the exhibited works were added in manuscript: for catalogue number 28, Les deux Artistes [The two artists], a price of 26,000 francs (the Belgian currency at the time) is mentioned, for number 29, Jeunesse et vieillesse [Youth and old age] 10,000 francs, and for number 30, Deux Compatriotes [Two friends] also 10,000 francs. During the same exhibition, Anna Boch 7 , whose work has since been greatly revalued, presented two paintings at ‘only’ 2,000 and 1,000 francs. This was one of the many commercial group exhibitions of which we have recovered the price lists, in which Colin’s works were by far the most expensive. 7 Anna Boch, Belgian impressionist painter of landscapes and still lifes. At first, she took private lessons from Isidore Verheyden, after which they continued to work together for many years. By using striking light effects, she became a true luminist during her later career. Elisabeth 8 also admired Colin’s oeuvre. She regularly visited his solo exhibitions and the group exhibitions in which he took part. During the Belgian Art exhibition in Bangkok in 1926, King Rama VII of what was then still called Siam, bought two works of art, including a ‘Still life with flowers’ by Jean Colin. 8 Elisabeth (1876-1965), consort of Albert I, King of Belgium from 1909 to 1934. It is generally known that Her Majesty took a sound interest in everything connected with art and culture and even in old age remained active in many of these fields. A number of national museums acquired oil paintings by Colin: the Museums for Fine Arts in Liège (#035), Ghent (#036), Charleroi, Tournai and the Charlier Museum in Brussels. The art collection of the Belgian House of Representatives was also enriched with Colin’s work, as were the public collections of the town halls in Dinant, Anderlecht (#108), Auderghem, Laeken and Schaerbeek. In other countries, Colin’s oeuvre is represented at the Belgian Embassy in Moscow by the canvas Place de la Bourse, Brussels’ Bourse Square. The Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga acquired the oil painting Jeune Femme au griffon [Young lady with a griffon, #033], depicting Colin’s favourite model with a Brussels griffon, a small breed of dog of Belgian origin. The Museum of Fine Arts in Tallinn (Estonia) also bought one of Colin’s works, but unfortunately this has not survived. It was an oil painting entitled Jeunesse et vieillesse [Youth and old age], which, along with the major part of its collection, was destroyed during the 1944 bombardments, during which the museum caught fire (source: Mrs Kersti Kuldna, archivist of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tallinn). We have no image of this work at our disposal, nor did the Tallinn museum’s archives survive the fire at the time. Maybe this refers to the canvas Jeunesse et vieillesse that Colin offered for sale for 10,000 francs during the Tournai Art Society exhibition in 1931, but as he frequently used the same general title for different canvases, this is impossible to ascertain. Furthermore, we can mention that in 1920 Jean Colin was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Couronne [Knight in the Order of the Crown (Belgium)] for important services in the field of the arts, while in 1930 he became a Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold II [Knight in the Order of Leopold II (King of Belgium)]. In 1932 he was made an Officier de l’Ordre de Lettonie [Officer in the Order of Latvia] and in 1948 an Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne [Officer in the Order of the Crown (Belgium)]. In 1942, a Brussels street was named after him. During their session of 19 June 1942, the Auderghem Bench of Burgomaster and Aldermen decided – while the Second World War was raging – to name a new public road Avenue Jean Colin. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

It goes without saying that during the early years of Jean’s artistic career, the Prix de Rome was his most prestigious award, especially when one realizes that in France at the time, grandmasters such as Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Édouard Manet (1832-1883) and Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) all made unsuccessful attempts to land the Prix de Rome. After all, the Rome prize was a continuation course and Italy was the cradle of classical art, a dream destination for many young artists who wanted to educate themselves further, but obviously were rarely able to bear the cost of this themselves. Since its inception, the Rome prize had been much sought after. The story goes that the French nineteenth-century artist Jacques-Louis David 9 even contemplated suicide after three unsuccessful attempts to win the Prix de Rome. Nevertheless, he persevered and, after his fifth entry, finally won the precious award. It also took the French musician Hector Berlioz10 five attempts to win his Prix de Rome. 9 Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), usually called David for short, a French painter of history scenes and por- traits. In 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome. Later, he was regarded as the leading figure of Neoclassicism and as such influenced numerous French painters. 10 Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), French composer and conductor. In 1830, at the age of twenty-seven, he was awarded the ‘Prix de Rome for Music’. The Prix de Rome was an incentive prize for exceptionally talented young artists. It was established in France in 1663 and subsequently adopted by a number of other countries, including the Nether- lands and future Belgium. Following the French model, different competitions for sculptors, painters and musicians were held in the Low Countries every three and four years. Painters were given a chance every three years, although the prize for this discipline was often not awarded because of – according to the jury – a lack of up-and-coming talent at that moment. The Prix de Rome consisted of a bursary to fund study tours to the Italian capital. There, the winner was allowed to study classical masterpieces at the Académie de France for a period of up to four years. In return, they had to design their own work of art and finish it completely, or else make a copy of a classical masterpiece. This had to be done in seclusion, totally isolated from the outside world. They also had to report on their findings and their study matter which – together with the work of art that had been produced in Rome – formed the basis for the final assessment. These processes were overseen by a supervisory committee, whose members, and this goes without saying, acted independently of the members of the jury. The bulky original file of Jean Colin’s ‘Prix de Rome for painting’ still exists, archived by the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts [Royal Academy of Fine Arts] (archive number ARB 14180). It includes – among other things – the jury’s report of the competition, two voluminous reports by Colin from 1913 and 1914 (43 pages in total), various reports from the committee members and various correspondence. In 1910, the Belgian Prix de Rome’s compulsory subject for painting – determined by drawing lots – was the ‘Adoration of the shepherds’. That year, eighty-four artists entered the competition. Firstly, the participants were subjected to a preliminary heat, which reduced their number to thirty. For the second round, they had to produce a true-to-life sketch of a head. After this test, eight finalists remained. They had to produce, within three months, a work of art relating to the subject that had been drawn by lots. The jury consisted of nine members, including the universally praised Emile Claus – who has since come to be regarded as the most important representative of Belgian Impressionism –, Xavier Mellery 11 and Evariste Carpentier 12 . Reading the report makes it clear that the jury ultimately made their selection from the eight different paintings that had been given a place in the finals, without knowing who the creators were. In that way, they judged without any past history, purely on the basis of that one work's technical realization and appearance. The deliberation by the jury took place at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp on 23 September 1910. Colin’s ‘Adoration of the shepherds’ was chosen by a large majority of votes: seven against two. In that year, the jury decided not to award a second prize, which would have offered the possible winner an opportunity to study at the same academy in Rome, albeit for a shorter period. ‘Only’ honourable mentions were awarded to the older Emile Vermeersch13 and Louis Busseret 14 . 11 Xavier Mellery (1845-1921), Belgian painter, draughtsman and illustrator. He is regarded as the forerunner of symbolism. In 1870, Mellery himself was awarded the Prix de Rome. 12 Evariste Carpentier (1845-1922), Belgian painter who evolved from academic painting to Impressionism. Alongside Emile Claus, Carpentier was one of the first representatives of luminism in Belgium. 13 Emile Vermeersch (1870-1952), Belgian draughtsman and painter of – among other things – townscapes, nudes and genre paintings. 14 Louis Buisseret (1888-1956), Walloon-Belgian painter, draughtsman and engraver. He painted realistic portraits, nudes and still lifes. In 1911, he won the Prix de Rome for engraving. In 1929, he received the silver medal at the Barcelona Salon and in the same year was appointed principal of the Art Academy in Mons (Belgium). In 1948, Buisseret took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1952 he was elevated to the rank of Commander in the Order of Leopold. Jean Colin’s ‘Adoration of the shepherds’ is a large oil painting (#110) depicting the Blessed Virgin holding the Infant Jesus on her knee. The two figures are surrounded by gaunt shepherds and members of their families. In itself, the composition is admirably simple. Mother Mary’s and Jesus’ incandescent glow partly illuminates the shepherds’ bodies. We notice a shrill contrast between the angelic faces of the Blessed Virgin and the newborn child and the shepherds’ tawny features. The delicately and richly coloured background – against which the figures clearly stand out – is bathed in the rays of the morning light. For a young artist, the whole painting shows evidence of an ex- ceptional academic talent, both through the fine and sober tonality and the composition and by the manner in which all this was put on canvas. According to the jury, Colin’s entry showed how much he had already mastered the métier by then and how outstandingly he managed to apply the play of light and the harmony of tones (sources: speech by Georges Moreau, the then burgomaster of Anderlecht, on Sunday 4 October 1910, on the occasion of the honouring of Jean Colin for winning his Prix de Rome and Gand Artistique art magazine, November 1923). ‘Adoration of the shepherds’ was generally lauded by Belgian and international art critics, except for a small group of conservative critics and – as Edouard Fonteyne describes them in the March 1922 edition of Beauté art magazine – ‘lovers of little paintings for the dining room’. Within these circles, the selection of Jean Colin caused a great stir. ‘How did the gentlemen of the jury, in their hats and cravats (…) arrive at the unfortunate idea to select somebody so young and intense? Somebody who expressed the most revolutionary tendencies in art?’ was how Fonteyne expressed his vicarious shame, answering his own question by remarking: ‘That was only possible because, in his painting, this highly talented young man has something to offer for everybody.’ In Jean Colin’s file on the Prix de Rome we find that he actually availed himself of only one of the four opportunities of travelling to Rome that the prize provided. This in contrast with, for instance, jury member Xavier Mellery, whose Italian journey for his Prix de Rome lasted no less than four whole years. It is true that the assignments related to the award were obligations, but apparently no strict stipulation as to time had been foreseen. In accordance with the regulations, as of 1911 Colin was allowed to make use of the travel expenses he had won. Yet, it turns out that – at least within the scope of his Rome prize – he did not leave for Italy until 1913. However, he did not even arrive in Rome that year: he stayed in Venice and its surrounding area, because of his love at first sight for 'the city of water and bridges’. In his report on the journey in question, he made elaborate mention of the marvellous city of Venice, where he began his analysis of classical masterpieces. The city of lagoons left a deep impression on Jean; he was to lose his heart to it for good. According to family reports, many years later he still spoke regularly about ‘his’ Venice and depicted that fondness several times in the form of oil paintings and a few engravings. For this reason, his descendants assumed that he must have visited Venice many times – which of course is not impossible –, although we were unable to recover any concrete evidence of this. During that year, Colin travelled – by way of Padua, Bologna and Ravenna – from Venice to Florence. In the capital of the Tuscan region, he again waxed lyrical while admiring the Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St Lawrence) – the original parish church of the influential and art-loving 15th-century Medici family – and was struck dumb at seeing Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) majestic sculptures. Indeed, we find that most of the sketches in his reports of the Prix de Rome studies are after Michelangelo’s work. We quote from his 1913 report: ‘When one enters this wonderful chapel in the evening, while closely examining the colossal sculptures which the artist has put over the tombs, one gets emotional in one’s respect for and amazement at so much beauty. (…) Modern sculpture has no equal and even the most beautiful sculptures from antiquity do not come near.’ Indeed, Colin was by no means the first Prix de Rome traveller to visit Venice and Florence beforehand and stay there for a longer period. Evidently these were the favourite stops on the artistic pilgrimage to Rome, the ultimate paradise of western culture. In 1914, Colin finally travelled to Rome, where he again studied old masterpieces and produced the work for his thesis, a copy of Giovanni Boltraffio’s 15 original fresco Madonna col Bambino e donatore [Madonna with Child and donor] in the Museo del Tasso in Rome’s Sant’Onofrio church. The meticulous assessment of Jean Colin’s 1913 reports about his findings in Italy was carried out by the dean of the committee and chief supervisor Charles Hermans 16 and supervisors Léon Frédéric 17 and Albert Baertsoen 18 . For the assessment of the Italian journey in 1914, the triad consisted of Frédéric, Baertsoen and Fernand Khnopff 19 . 15 Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (circa 1466 -1516), Italian painter from the High Renaissance, who worked in the studio of Leonardo da Vinci. He mainly created religious scenes and was also a portraitist. According to some, the painting Madonna col Bambino e donatore should be ascribed to Cesare da Sesto (1477-1523), also an Italian High Renaissance painter. 16 Charles Hermans (1839-1924), painter from the Belgian naturalist and realist schools. His own sojourn in Italy lasted from 1862 to 1867, where he produced – among other works – numerous paintings about monastic life in Rome, after which he undertook several more journeys to other Mediterranean regions. 17 Léon Frédéric (1856-1940), Belgian painter of historical and religious scenes, landscapes and portraits. His later period is considered part of the trend known as symbolism. From 1876 to 1878, Frédéric himself unsuccessfully competed for the Prix de Rome several times. In the end, his father was to finance that study tour, so that in 1878 and 1879 he was able to stay in Italy together with the Belgian sculptor and medallist Julien Dillens (1849-1904), who had landed the ‘Prix de Rome for sculpture’ in 1877. 18 Albert Baertsoen (1866-1922), Belgian painter and graphic artist. His later work evolved towards realistic Impressionism. Baertsoen was on friendly terms with Emile Claus. 19 Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), Belgian symbolist painter, sculptor and designer, voted number 102 in the Flemish version of ‘The Greatest Belgian’ contest in 2005. It is clear that Colin’s first report within the framework of his Rome prize did not appear until 1913. In his concluding letter, addressed to the secretary of the Ministry of Science and Arts (dated 3 April, 1914), with which he submitted his thesis work, thereby concluding his Prix de Rome project, he clearly mentions his second journey in that year: ‘(…) en remettant mon rapport sur mon second voyage en Italie (…)’ [hereby submitting the report of my second Italian journey]. In the family archive, however, we found significant evidence that Jean Colin had indeed visited Italy one year before his first report for the Prix de Rome. It concerns a picture postcard sent to his niece Elisabeth, his sister Colette’s first daughter, who was one year and four months old at the time, with the following words written on it: ‘à la petite Elise, souvenir de mon séjour à Florence. Jean Colin. — 1912 – 5 –’ [to my little Elise, in memory of my sojourn in Florence. Jean Colin, May 1912]. Had Colin gone to Italy on a scouting trip that year, without reporting this to the continuation course committee? While we were completing the texts of this publication, Eric Min20 made another extra- ordinary last-minute discovery. During preliminary work on his book about artists in Venice, he found references to Jean Colin in the correspondence of the Antwerp Futurist Jules Schmalzigaug 21 , who lived in Venice for many years. On 6 or 7 June, Schmalzigaug wrote a letter to his parents in Caffè Florian in the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), in which he states the following: ‘(…) A few days ago, as I was working in St Mark’s Square, somebody suddenly stood before me, mentio- ned my name and bade me good day. It was Colin, on the way from his Prix de Rome. He had come back from Algeria, where he had spent a few months and to which he will return to work. After that he went to Florence and at the moment he is working here in Venice.’ On 9 July Schmalzigaug writes: ‘(…) at this point, my letter was interrupted by a visit from Colin and the delivery of the mail. Colin stayed for an hour and was furious because he felt under pressure to leave. He is less fortunate than I am. He has not been able to finish a single painting and because of this he feels unhappy and ashamed, having to return to Brussels with so little material. However, he works hard, but it takes time before one finds one’s bearings in a new country.’8 It is clear that Jean Colin dealt with his Prix de Rome in a creative manner. We may note that Algeria is not in Italy and that his 1913 report, in which he feigns to have visited Venice for the first time that year, should not be taken too literally. 20 Eric Min (b. 1959) has been active since 1989 as a critic and essayist for De Morgen, Staalkaart and rekto:verso. He has published biographies of James Ensor and Rik Wouters. De eeuw van Brussel. Biografie van een wereldstad (1850-1914), his biography of the Belgian capital, was nominated for the AKO-literatuurprijs (a prize for literature in the Netherlands and Belgium) in 2014. His biography Henri Evenepoel. Een schilder in Parijs [A painter in Paris] was published in April 2016. 21 Jules Schmalzigaug (1882-1917), Belgian painter and draughtsman, was one of the first Belgian avant-garde artists to manifest themselves in Italian Futurism. He also followed Isidore Verheyden’s lessons at the Brussels Académie. Schmalzigaug never exhibited in Belgium during his lifetime. The unsigned ‘Adoration of the shepherds’ by Jean Colin is still in the archive of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where the deliberations of the jury took place at the time. In 1968, France abolished the original Prix de Rome. The last Belgian version was awarded in 1974. In the Netherlands, the award still exists; its organization was transferred to the Mondriaan Fund in 2013. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

From 1910 to 1913, Jean Colin continuously exhibited his works with Le Sillon, originally a conser- vative association of visual artists in Brussels. He was to remain one of its core exhibitors for a long time, or otherwise take part in their exhibitions on a regular basis, as did – among others – Fernand Toussaint 22 , Willem Paerels 23 and Ernest Godfrinon 24 . In order to explain Colin’s membership of Le Sillon, it is important to know that he did indeed join this collective during those years, a period in which the Sillonnists revised their initially conservative vision in a most remarkable way. 22 Fernand Toussaint (1873-1956), versatile Belgian painter, aquarellist, draughtsman and lithographer. In 1929 he won the gold medal for a woman’s portrait at the Paris Salon. Meanwhile, his elegant women’s portraits have enjoyed global renown, as a result of which he is now often regarded as the ‘Belgian Renoir’. 23 Willem Paerels (1878-1962), Dutch painter who took up Belgian nationality in 1930. After following the lesson(s) at the Brussels Académie for only one day, he was to develop further as an autodidact. He travelled a lot and worked alternately in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. He also belonged to the Belgian artistic trend of Brabant Fauvism and to the Sociéte belge des Peintres de la Mer [Belgian association of marine painters], founded in 1930. The latter movement grouped together painters who often depicted marine motives without exclusively being marine painters. Although he was influenced by several artistic trends, until his death Paerels saw himself first and foremost as an Impressionist. 24 Ernest Godfrinon (1878-1927), Belgian painter. During his lifetime, he mostly created landscapes, still lifes and intimate genre paintings. A number of his works can be regarded as postimpressionistic. At least two duo exhibitions of Ernest Godfrinon and Jean Colin were held during the 1920s. Le Sillon was founded in 1893, under the chairmanship of Gustave-Max Stevens 25 . The founders were mainly young students at the Brussels Académie, who drew in their subsequent members from the same breeding ground. The artists’ collective Le Sillon wanted to offer a counterbalance to neoimpressionism and symbolism, and later they were also opposed to luminism. Luminism was mainly a Belgian trend in painting, aiming at strong light effects. It emphasized these strong light effects through an optic mixture of colours and showed similarities to pointillism. This trend started in Belgium from 1904 onwards; it is also comparable with the neoimpressionism from France, practised for a short period by – among others – Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935). Emile Claus is regarded as the spiritual father of Belgian luminism. 25 Gustave-Max Stevens (1871-1946), Belgian painter of portraits, landscapes and still lifes. The founders of Le Sillon were reactionaries who refused to conform to any renewing –ism. For them, it was only craftsmanship that counted, the preservation of traditional methods. They wanted to refocus on the rich Flemish tradition of realism, which they regarded as the only ‘respectable’ form of painting, i.e. the classical ideal of beauty. Their aim was naturalism, with not only the 17th-century Spanish painter Velázquez 26 as their great example, but also other old masters like Rembrandt and Rubens. 26 Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) worked as a court painter for the Spanish royal family. He mainly created por- traits, religious scenes and genre paintings. His early work was characterized by exceptional realism. The first Sillonnists took refuge in art history’s past. They loved the sombre colours of earth and asphalt, were against the art of imagination, against the liberation of form and colour. It is true one had to recognise the artistic qualities in a number of them, but one should be allowed to reproach them for their dire lack of imagination, because ‘Art only begins where Imitation ends’, as Oscar Wilde once said. In fact, we may argue that the Sillonnists were initially opposed to – or were afraid of – modernism, because they did not want to deviate from their academic doctrine, perhaps under the conservative-bourgeois motto ‘innovation disturbs the market’. After all, they lived during a period of great change, where traditions in the arts were rejected in order to experiment with new ways. The ratio of colour to form was to determine the essence of the visual arts, and not the realistic imitation of scenery. The ‘stuffy’ art of the original Sillonnists was reviled by numerous art critics from different schools. By way of an example, here is a torrent of abuse by Lucien Solvay in the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, March 1902: ‘These young people are hopelessly old and the art they produce is museum art, old news, memories of the past, an unmistakeable step backwards. (…) It smells of the studio, the work is full of tricks, inventions, easy effects, coarse and brazen contrasts.’ Maybe partly prompted by the extraordinarily harsh criticisms, the Sillonnists tempered their reactionary extremism as of 1904, as they gradually rejuvenated their vision. They too, started to experiment and evolve, and ultimately made overtures towards luminism. In time, their brushstroke did become lighter and their realizations even began to bear resemblance to the first works by the future Brabant Fauve artists. In the early 20th century, Brabant Fauvism was a Belgian artistic trend, analogous to the Parisian Fauvism of – among others – Henri Matisse (1869-1954) en Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). The Brabant trend also employed vivid, almost unmixed colours, but in a less violent way than the French Fauves did. Rik Wouters – at present one of the favourites of the Belgian art public – is regarded as the principal Brabant Fauve artist. Although some Sillonnists made overtures towards Fauvism during that period, we cannot regard the Le Sillon society as forerunners of the Belgian Fauve school. The line of approach of the two movements differed too much for that. Nevertheless, a number of Brabant Fauves temporarily joined Le Sillon, if only to take part in the annual commercial exhibitions that took place in the Brussels Museum of Modern Art. Among others, Edgard Tytgat 27 and the unfortunate Rik Wouters 28 were part of this group of ‘opportunists’. Nevertheless, Wouters’ judgement of the Sil- lonnists was very harsh. In a letter to the French artist Simon Lévy29 dated 20 May 1911, he ridiculed them, reproached them for being crude followers of the great Ensor, after having taken part in the Le Sillon exhibitions himself: ‘The Sillonnists are all wielding their knives and want to see Ensor dead. They all seem to have discovered his secret. The palette knife gives fine, tonal effects and that says it all. In short, they’re all just bloody bricklayers!’ It was during this period, in which the Sillonnists began to evolve towards the trends they were initially formally against, that Jean Colin joined them. He, too, was not insensitive to dominant innovations. Le Sillon’s extremely conservative character faded and Impressionism and its deriva- tive trends were no longer controversial parts of artistic life, but had become generally accepted and established techniques, even to such an extent that the refreshing, late 19th-century Impressionism was now part of the curriculum at art academies, where the vision was downgraded to a clichéd technique. In 1905, Albert Baertsoen expressed it as follows in the art magazine L’Art Moderne: ‘It goes without saying that Impressionism is only a – surpassed – phase in art’s permanent evolution. One cannot deny its influence and importance. The whole of contemporary production is permeated by it.’ As his debut works show, Colin did indeed receive his impressionist baggage from the art academy, but, depending on the subject matter, he was to remain faithful to realism all his life. A realism, it is true, in his own style, with lighter or stronger impressionistic brushstrokes, the degree of which depended on his emotional involvement in relation to the subject to be depicted. Colin did not use influence or purpose as his system; his own emotions were his system. Not only did he use his eyes, but he also often painted from his heart. Colin was a blessed artist, who painted just like he drew breath. 27 The work of the Brussels painter Edgard Tytgat (1879-1957) is characterized by a personal style, inspired by expressionism and popular prints from the 18th and 19th centuries. His favourite subjects were circus life and the fun fair and its attractions. In addition, he also painted nudes and interiors. Tytgat was on friendly terms with Rik Wouters and joined the Brabant Fauvists who had gathered around the latter. 28 Rik Wouters died very young. During his short career, he painted almost continuously. In scarcely ten years, he realised a large oeuvre of about 200 paintings and more than 1,000 drawings. Wouters exhibited three times during the Le Sillon salons: in 1904, 1907 and 1909. 29 Simon Lévy (1886-1973), French painter, who left a limited oeuvre. In 1905 he travelled through Belgium and the Netherlands. After the death of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Lévy became acquainted with his work, which was to strongly influence his subsequent painting. We do not know when exactly Le Sillon ceased to exist, but the group’s last catalogue that we reco- vered is from 1924, an exhibition in which Jean Colin also participated. For all his extraordinarily successful artistic experiments – mainly carried out during the 1910s –, Colin continued to propagate the Sillonnists’ conservative ideas, applauded by art critics who were just as conservative. Colin did not condemn the modernists, but he regretted some of their excesses. As Édouard Fonteyne wrote in the art magazine Beauté in 1922: ‘Colin does not worry about fashion, snobbery and the idiocy of a few frenzied fellows who want to make them- selves heard at all costs, in the process of which they break off with everything life has left to offer us in the field of beauty, well-being and encouragement.’ In Savoir et Beauté of 1924, Gaston Heux expressed it as follows: ‘Colin regards with disfavour the disasters that art inflicts on nature.’ And in Le Soir illustré of 17 January 1931 we read the following witticism: ‘Colin is one of those who attribute to the métier a weight it has often lost with modern artists. This loss to the métier is always at the expense of the expressive powers – they impoverish and weaken. The contempt with which people look at the technique causes fewer strong personalities and more clever painters to emerge, with the latter replacing the arduous quest for character (which is exactly what the real challenge to the great masters was) with the easy virtuosity of the brush. Jean Colin has preserved this traditional aspect of the work.’ Beside Jean Colin’s membership of Le Sillon, we mention that he was a founding member of the Cercle d’Art d’Anderlecht [Anderlecht Art Circle] in 1905 and of the Cercle Artistique d’Auderghem [Auderghem Art Circle], which was founded in 1932. The latter society devoted itself to the establish- ment of a local museum, held exhibitions of its members’ works, published prints and supported municipal charities. From 1931 onwards, Colin was included in the list of added members of la Société Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles [the Brussels Royal Society of Fine Arts]. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

In early 1920, a large Roma clan descended near Sint-Agatha-Berchem, at the time a municipality still belonging to the Dutch part of the then Belgian province of Brabant. The ‘clairvoyant’ Roma made their living out of creative trading. As a result they knew only too well from experience that they had an added picturesque value among the local population in our region. Therefore, they were seen wandering the streets of Brussels and the suburbs in small groups everyday, knocking on painters’ doors. They had their addresses, scribbled on scraps of paper (a piece of information from Gand Artistique, November 1923, a contribution by Maurice Haloche). Jean Colin regarded the Roma as a true revelation. They had something magical about them: their tanned faces with their noble features, their charcoal eyes – shining and black, their skin with its copper complexion and their moiré ‘gowns’. In what other people called ‘rags’, Colin saw a feast of noble attire, of which the reds, yellows and blues begged to be painted by him. They would make perfect models, this was seventh heaven for a colourist! From that day on, Colin could not keep his eyes off those fascinating travellers. He started painting them as if in a whirl: women, girls and boys, young and old, one canvas after another. He painted them in a seemingly straightforward way, but all the same imbued with real noblesse. It was said that Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926, a Belgian philosopher, archbishop and cardinal) tried to convert these nomads to the Christian faith, but as far as Colin was concerned they could remain who they were: independent descendants of an itinerant race that had preserved the romance of the wild, the adventurous and the picturesque. They shared with him his fondness of foreign travel and the endless quest for perfection, like a dream hunter. Soon, the Roma became his companions, even his friends. In the long run, they became so attached to him that they stored their tents at his house, had their meals there and devoted them- selves to making music, singing and dancing. The Colin residence became the Roma’s ‘open house’. They used his piano as their dinner table, the carpets became the small children’s playground. Colin did not complain at all, for he felt at home in their company. ‘The Roma are indeed a lively people,’ he stated, ‘but also quite honourable.’ And he continued: ‘After a while, they considered my studio their headquarters. One day, I asked one of the women to pose for me with her child. Around dinner time, not two, but some fifteen women and children arrived, with barbaric (editor’s note: this is quoted verbatim) names like Sika, Stoyka, Terka, Louba-Loubo, Wogo… Unceremoniously, they nestled down in my studio to have dinner together. The meal, which they fetched from a large basket, consisted of bread and sausage, which they dipped into a pickled sauce by turns. During certain times, these frugal meals would take place in my studio, which the tribe had transformed into an eating-house. This was often accompanied by a prelude of song and dance. Given the kind- ness of these people, the women did not hesitate to give me a seat around the dish and shove a piece of sausage my way, drenched in their devilish sauces… Sometimes one has to overcome one’s aver- sion to the taste of the picturesque. Once the meal had been finished, the older women stretched out on the cushions and chairs to take a nap, while the younger women taught their children how to read my palm. Together they made up an interesting group, lacking neither colour nor plasticity (from Gand Artistique, November 1923)’. Jean Colin observed his environment with his heart, a striking characteristic during his whole career. He was often ‘in love’ – at times quite literally – with a number of his subjects, and to such an extent that passion would radiate from the work. Colin immortalized ‘his’ nomads, made them shine on the canvas in hallowed paint, like lyrical outpourings. He put his soul into it and was rewarded for it at the time with the unanimous admiration that these honest and spontaneous works would evoke. The Roma brought a great and fertile influence to his painting, a predilection he extended to other southern types. His numerous canvases on these subjects – which were often marked by the colourist’s preference for vivid colours – were very successful. Other artists, such as Philippe Swyncop 30 or Jean Laudy 31 , had also ventured to portray Roma. Their works were vivid representations, it is true, but clearly without much commitment, so that one felt the lack of nuance (according to the art critic Gaston HEUX in the art magazine Savoir et Beauté, March 1924). 30 Philippe Swyncop (b. Brussels, 1878 – d. Saint-Gilles-Waes, 1949), Brussels painter, illustrator and poster designer. He entered the contest for the coveted Prix de Rome no less than three times (in 1898, 1904 and 1907), without receiving any laurels. However, in 1900 he did receive the Godecharle Prize. Like Jean Colin, Swyncop joined Le Sillon and the Cercle Artistique d’Auderghem. Until 1924, he mainly painted impressionist portraits. 31 Jean Laudy (b. Venlo, 1877 – d. Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, 1956), Dutch painter, who settled in Brussels at the age of twenty and stayed there until his death. Like Jean Colin, Laudy was a long-time permanent member of the Le Sillon group. Both Brussels and Venlo named a street after him, while Venlo is home to the art museum ‘Jean Laudy Museum Chapel’. As is usual among itinerant people, the special guests of Hôtel Jean left again after a while. Maybe in search of other painters who, for a reasonable donation, might want to portray them. For Jean Colin, they always remained where they had been – he continued to experience the pleasure of their ‘primitive beauty’. After all, he had taken them to his heart and they were branded on his memory to such an extent that they remained colourful and were forever dancing – like a leitmotiv. Later, Colin would regard his encounter with the Roma as one of the most beautiful periods of his life. He would keep on painting them inexhaustibly and for many years to come the trade press would elaborate on their friendship in almost every article, although this particular group of Roma only spent a short time in the Brussels region. In each solo exhibition and almost each group exhibition that took place during his lifetime, Jean Colin exhibited paintings of the Romanichels and other southern types. We have documentation on this up to and including the 1955 solo exhibition at the Royal Cercle d’Art d’Anderlecht and the 1959 group exhibition of the same art society. Ultimately, the Roma’s added picturesque value had become Colin’s decisive success. Copyright Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin Jean Colin’s death, a monumental canvas was found in his bedroom in the Liefdadigheids- straat in the Brussels district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, dating from 1920 and depicting eight Roma figures (#050). In spite of the fact that the aesthetic appeal of the exotic was one of Colin’s pet subjects and represents an important part of his oeuvre, we will include no other works which illustrate this in the present publication, because the impressionistic touch of such paintings is usually not dominating – after all, they were made after the art-historical period of Belgian Impressionism – and we are therefore unable to classify these as his ‘impressionist masterpieces’, which are the subject of this publication. Although the term ‘gypsy’ occurs in the original literature, we have consciously avoided this term in our text, because it has since acquired a negative resonance and is regarded as discriminatory by many Roma. As a matter of fact – because of what we now know –, Jean Colin would find it distasteful today, in spite of the fact that at the time he used the word ‘barbaric’ himself within the context mentioned earlier on, but that was during an altogether different period. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin

Jean Colin regularly travelled abroad, in search of inspiration and motives. At an early age he paid several visits to Le Vésinet, a residential municipality west of Paris, surrounded by parks, lakes and artificial rivers. Obviously, he also visited Paris – which had been an internationally leading art centre since the 17th century – to paint there and meet other artists. Colin also spent longer periods in picturesque Brittany, with a number of paintings depicting Breton life as a result. We already knew of his Italian journeys, and in those days he also travelled all over Algeria (#070). Furthermore, according to statements from family members – even though we found no documents relating to this –, he is also said to have been to England, Spain, Lithuania and Siam. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin