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Jean-Gabriel Domergue
(1889-1962)
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Portriat of the Countess Desforges
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Jean-Gabriel Domergue was born in Bordeaux, France and would eventually create a style of advertising art that would become a vintage symbol of French life. He would become known for his beautiful depictions of women, nude and elegantly dressed alike.
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Femme a l’etole de Boa
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L’Enlevement de Sabine, 1956
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La Loge
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Domergue studied under fellow artists Adler and Flameng, and had his first exhibition in 1906 at the Salon des Artistes Francais. Though he would initially try his hand at being a landscape painter, Domergue found great success and fortune painting fashionable portraits and advertising of young French sirens. He has been compared to the likes of Tolouse-Lautrec for bringing feminine sexual icons (in Domergue’s case, fashion models and dancers) into the artistic realm. It is even said that Domergue claimed to be the original inventor of the pin-up model.
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Danseuse
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L’Habilleuse
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The famous dancer Josephine Baker also posed for Domergue in the nude.
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Josephine Baker
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Domergue’s nudes can be easily distinguished by their nubile, thin and elongated appearance and their swan-like necks.
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Sybil aux Seins Nus
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Nude
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Nude 2
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In 1927, Domergue moved to Cannes where he would live the rest of his life, close to his beautiful young subjects on the Mediterranean. Living on the Cote d’Azur gave Domergue even more inspiration and new subjects to portray in his advertisements and compositions.
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“Cote d’Azur” poster
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Among some of his more famous advertisements were for the Cote d’ Azur and for the French department store Galleries Lafayette.
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“Galleries Lafayette” fan
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Domergue was very prolific during his lifetime, creating a number of posters, etchings and oil paintings. He continued to work nearly until his death, leaving a legacy of beautiful advertisements and portraits which symbolize an era in France now long gone.
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Woman under Parasol, 1956
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While his nude portraits may be easy to recognize, Domergue also surely created a number of other portraits and etchings not typical to his usual style. Domergue was also inconsistent as to where, or if, he would sign his work, making it difficult for some authenticators to authenticate his paintings. For these reason, you may very well own a painting by Jean-Gabriel Domergue.
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Portrait of Mr. Lazzerreschi
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