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