Jean D'Esparbes French | 1899 - 1968" He explores a secret world expressing himself on his canvas in a murky green tone which seems to be the color of his dreams. Marcel Aymé Jean d'Esparbès (1899-1968) is a French painter, engraver, illustrator and poet An inspiring childhood His childhood spent in the Château de Fontainebleau, where his father, Georges d'Esparbès, was a curator, left him with a taste for great classical balances, from which he drew a very personal conception of refinement and pictorial strength. which make him a deeply original artist.In Fontainebleau again, he experienced the masked parties which brought together the Parisian high society as much as the actors and actresses of Montmartre Jean very early showed the desire to paint and, still a teenager, he set up his studio in the pavilion of the chaplains. Thanks to his father, who was very attentive to his son's vocation, Jean met Bonnard in Antibes and visited Renoir in his studio. The destruction of a world Jean d'Esparbès never left did not participate in the First World War, because he was too young to be mobilized at the start of the conflict and was lucky enough to avoid conscription in 1917. He continued his artistic training by taking courses in Decorative Arts. But the collapse of the society that had cradled his childhood marks him with a definitive melancholy and his subjects of inspiration and his palette reflect this. Installation in Montmartre Jean d'Esparbès has always been faithful to the Butte, successively installing his studio in rue de Douai, rue Lepic then rue Saint-Vincent. He sells his canvases in Montmartre cafés, to the great despair of his dealers who never succeed in making him respect an exclusive contract. He exhibits regularly at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants, of which he is a member. After the Second World War, he was part of the traveling exhibition which, from 1947 to 1950, introduced the painters of Montmartre throughout France, including overseas. His workshop is located in the mythical rue Saint-Vincent, at number 36. He is a neighbor of Patrice d'Hervalganthe whose workshop is on the odd numbered side. The painter of inner reflection Jean d'Esparbès has always felt preoccupied with the transcription of moods. He hardly ever paints landscapes, rarely still lifes, only the human, his thoughts, his feelings absorb him. It depicts great human emotions, loneliness but also seduction. He populates his canvases with characters drawn from myths and popular theatre, ragged harlequins, Figaros drunk, strollers and beggars, always depicted in situations that arouse in the spectator / viewer a reflection on his destiny. He is one of the few painters to endeavor to represent thought in motion: the chess player, the musician composing, the poet writing.Jean D'Esparbès died in Montmartre in 1968In 1972, the Salon des Indépendants devotes an exhibition to him in homage, and the Museum of Montamartre devotes a retrospective exhibition to him in 1988.