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Biography |
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The son of the well-known Art Nouveau cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle, Jacques Majorelle studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts Appliqués in his native Nancy before enrolling at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1906. |
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He travelled as a young artist to Spain in 1908, apparently for the sake of his health, and a trip to Venice at the end of that year resulted in a number of paintings which were exhibited in Nancy in January 1910, not long before he made his first visit to Egypt. |
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Majorelle was to make three long trips to Egypt between 1910 and 1914, each stay lasting several months. |
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He was based in the village of Marg, on the Nile near Cairo, and travelled down the river as far as Karnak and Luxor, setting up his easel on the boat. |
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The next three decades of Majorelle’s life were spent largely in Morocco, and were among the most productive of his career. |
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He settled in Marrakesh in 1917, and in 1922 acquired and decorated a house, soon to be known as the Villa Majorelle. |
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In 1924 he created a magnificent botanical garden for the villa, which remains today as one of the leading sights of Marrakesh. |
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Majorelle travelled throughout Morocco, painting views of towns and villages and undertaking expeditions into the Atlas mountains. |
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He also provided decorations for the hotel La Mamounia in Marrakesh and painted a pair of large mural-like canvases for the Hôtel de Ville in Casablanca. |
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Majorelle continued to send paintings to exhibitions in Europe, however, and established a significant reputation in France as a painter of Orientalist and Near Eastern subjects. |
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Between 1945 and 1952 Majorelle made several visits to Western Africa, travelling and painting in the French Sudan (modern day Mali), Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Niger and Senegal. |
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He continued to live in Marrakesh until a few months before his death in 1962. |
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