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Alfred Auguste Janniot Biography
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Famous and recognized by the professionals of art and publics, Alfred Auguste Janniot was successful during his life and is nowadays unfortunately forbidden.
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1889 |
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Born in 1889 in a neighbourhood called Montmartre in Paris.
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1907 |
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Alfred Auguste Janniot studied sculpture in 1907 at the Ecole nationale des beaux-arts in Paris. Student of Injalbert, a specialist in 18-century style rounded forms, whose academic approach was situated at the confluence of Carpeaux and Puget. He learned rhythm, bound of shape, lines and bodies. He strongly admires the harmonious rhythm of the mannerist Renaissance period.
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1910 |
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His career starts with a mention obtained at the Salon des Artistes français
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1919 |
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Then at thirty years old, he won the Prix de Rome. This prize will bring forth State commissions and solidifies his ambition for most notably monumental sculpture. He then goes on to deal with the problem of mural decoration.
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1925 |
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1925-1931-1937 : the big exhibitions consecrate him. In 1925, the decorative, industrial and modern Arts exhibition celebrates Art Deco and its elitist’s luxury. At this time, he presents his sculpture “Hommage à Jean Goujon” in homage to the Ecole de Fontainebleau’s classicism. This precious composition was in front of the Jacques Emile Ruhlmann‘s Collector Pavillon. At 36 years old, Janniot is a complete artist.
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1931 |
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The colonial exhibition of 1931 asserts him as a master in low reliefs. At this time he shows in its compositions a technique made of density and empty space’s horror. He realised a 1200 square meters frieze in low relief to illustrate the exotically richness of the colonial world at the Africa and Oceania National Art Museum.
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1934 |
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He received a commision from the New York Rockefeller Center, where he realized the magnificent French House’s door in bronze gilt patinated, symbol of Beauty, Elegance and Poetry. This is also the time where he can be considered as the official sculptor of the Bordeaux city, under the administration of the mayor Adrien Marquet.
Prolific artist, Janniot has a very active life, he exposes at the Salon des Artistes français, at the Salon des Tuileries and at the Salon d’Automne.
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1926 - 1935 |
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Ruhlmann integrates him in his sculptors team and sees him like one of the best. Janniot and Ruhlmann will collaborate at the ships “Ile de France” in 1926 and “Normandy” in 1935.
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1935 |
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He represents the French section at the Bruxelles exhibition and in Canada.
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1937 |
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In 1937, during the International Exhibition of the Arts and techniques, it is the coming back of decoration’s logic tradition, limited to chief points and simple volumes. There, he shows a wish of classicism harmoniously integrated to architecture. Paris allows him to work at the Modern Art Museum where he had to shape an high relief of 310 square meters.
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1938 |
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He participates at an important exhibition, the Venise Biennale.
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1920 - 1939 |
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One of the distinctive features of the 1920’s and 1930’s was the craze for French culture in the United-States. Janniot represented the French taste for “restrained modernism”. The sculpted wall will be his true speciality and will make him famous.
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1943 |
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His atelier is bombarded. Janniot took refuge at a friend’s house who commissioned him to decorate his estate “La Thébaïde”, in Val-d’Oise.
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1945 - 1959 |
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He became teacher, responsible of the monumental art atelier at the Ecole des beaux-arts, where he taught César among others. The founding of the Monumental department by Janniot and Marcel Gimond brought down the rigid walls between architecture, painting and sculpture, that in Janniot’s view, had for too long boxed in the creative spirit.
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1969 |
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Janniot was showered with honours, yet his death in 1969 was not widely remarked. He is buried in Neuilly sur Seine.
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Janniot had a sculptor’s vision and skill. He considered carving in stone to be an alternative to the academic tradition of modelling. He sought to develop a classical modernism through simplifying, condensing and integrating, like Maillol or Bourdelle did.
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