Jean de Botton

Jean de Botton (1898 - 1978). Extract from the 1968 book: “It is thirty six years since Jean de Botton decided to be a painter and during the thirteen years that followed he devoted himself to the learning of his craft. Then, in 1933, came the moment when, faced with the frescoes of Piero della Francesca, it was revealed to him what kind of a painter he was to be. That was the moment he made a bonfire of three hundred and fifty pictures, wrote, in essay form, his creed “Chiaroscuro killing painting”, and began that steady development through one phase after another in each of which he reminded superbly faithful to that creed, refining on a major exhibition. This latest phase of his work the artist calls “Humanized Abstraction.” His disciplined fantasy gives meaning to the present exhibition. It is not the mythological fantasy of “The Fall of Icarus” or the lyrical fantasy of “La Cathedrale englouite” that means his painting so satisfying, but the mysterious rhythms of boats in a harbour, a lobster on a table, a forest of oil-derricks in Texas that makes de Botton’s message clear. These are the experiences of everyday life made precious by an eye that can find in them lovely arabeques of form and - this is what makes de Botton important - hitherto undiscovered harmonies of colour…”