José FRAPPA
(Saint Etienne, 1854 – Paris, 1904)
Self-portrait of the artist with his wife and son Jean-José FRAPPA
Oil on panel
Signed and dated 1891 lower right
25 x 20 cm
Exhibition :
- Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts under No. 369, With family
Born to grocer parents, and after having worked as a designer in a silk workshop in Lyon, José Frappa joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in 1872. He stayed there for a year, then decided to try his luck in Paris; at the Ecole National des Beaux-Arts his teachers were Isidore Pils and then Jean-Georges Vibert, who probably gave him a taste for representing religious people in more or less anecdotal genre scenes.
Aged 22, he made his debut at the Salon in 1876, and had to wait only four years before receiving his first honorable mention.
Gradually the artist began to acquire success, notoriety, and… fortune, knowing how to produce profitable portraits for a wealthy clientele, and knowing how to export himself abroad where he became highly sought after (notably in England and the United States). He married Marie-Augustine Frézet in 1881, and settled in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, before moving in 1888 to 12, rue Pergolèse in the then very fashionable 16th arrondissement.
It was in this apartment that Frappa represented himself in 1891 with his wife and their only son Jean-José born on April 3, 1882. The son of a grocer had become a respected bourgeois, he received many writers and poets at his home such as François Coppée, he owned a holiday chalet in Vichy. While wanting to display the signs of his success (the Henri II style decor, the son in his sailor suit and applied to his studies, the falsely casual attitude, cigarette holder in hand, of the painter nevertheless contemplating with contentment his painting and his family), Frappa produced a small composition in a modest format, ultimately very intimate. The workmanship is smooth and precise, the qualities of colorist very present. In 1891 he exhibited 9 other paintings at the Salon du Champ de Mars of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, created in 1890 by Puvis de Chavanne.
Although, in addition to his portraits, he sometimes painted quite naturalistic scenes illustrating the daily life of his time, Frappa is best known for being "the painter of monks", whom he often depicted in comical attitudes: but while subtly distilling a Rabelaisian spirit in these paintings, Frappa had great respect for these religious people whom he was supposed to be mocking.
Having become a Parisian and international painter, he always remained close to his native region, participating in all the exhibitions in Lyon and being very popular in Lyon's artistic community.
Saint-Etienne, the city of his youth, paid tribute to him by erecting a monument in his image in front of the Town Hall in 1912, and by giving his name to one of the streets (the former rue Neuve, where he was born).
The interest of this painting is also to represent his son Jean-José (1882 – October 10, 1939), who was a famous journalist, writer and playwright. As our painting suggests, he was a good student, who studied classical studies at Sainte-Croix de Neuilly, then at the Janson high school in Sailly, before graduating in law. In 1904 he was already married (to a dramatic artist, Marcelle Desfossés) and a father (his son named Paul-José). After the war of 14-18 during which he was a liaison officer on the Eastern front, he collaborated with the major newspapers of the time, and became editor-in-chief of "Femina" and "Le Monde Illustré". He remarried the opera singer Olympe Garcias.
Among his novels we can cite: "In Salonika under the Eye of the Gods" (1917), "In Paris under the Eye of the Foreigners" (1926).
Among his screenplays for the cinema: "The Marvelous Life of Joan of Arc", directed by Marco de Gastyne in 1929, "The Chess Player", directed by Raymond Bernard in 1926.
Like his father, he will be a knight of the Legion of Honor.