Jean Thomas

Bavella pass, Corsica, France, original oil painting by Jean Thomas

circa 1980

Trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Jean Thomas began exhibiting early works in 1946, in the wake of the great modern painters. “The influences of Fernand Léger and Henri Matisse can be heard in his early canvases, which often feature muted brown-gray tones, as well as echoes of the research of contemporaries such as Bernard Buffet, notably in his series on religious art. From 1955 onwards, Jean Thomas turned his attention to landscapes, which he now depicted with a highly personal style, delivering representations of near-photographic precision. Through a precise study of light and great pictorial mastery, his works bear witness to a trend: post-war realist landscapes. While Paris and the surrounding region provided him with an inexhaustible playground, Jean Thomas thrived on travel - throughout France and the world, from the United States to Polynesia. He kept a notebook in which each painting was listed and located. He ventured to the four corners of the globe. We can follow his peregrinations in Corsica, Normandy, Auvergne, Polynesia and New York. As a professional painter, Jean Thomas has exhibited extensively in Paris (Galerie d'art de la Place Beauvau, Galerie de la Tournelle), throughout France and abroad, from Tokyo to Florence and Brussels. Museums -Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris -Musée National d'Art Moderne-Paris , Centre Georges Pompidou -Musée de L'ille de France à Sceaux