Jacques Pellegrin
1944–2021 · French painter of portraits, landscapes and still lifes
Jacques Pellegrin (France, 1944 – 2021) was a French painter known for portraits, landscapes and still lifes. He began painting at eight and, at eleven, won the first prize at the Hôtel de Ville in Aix-en-Provence. His early work moved from classical and realist models toward Impressionism once he discovered it.
Before committing fully to painting, he trained as a translator in Munich and earned a degree in German language in Aix-en-Provence. He soon left teaching to live as an independent artist. In 1980 he devoted himself entirely to painting and studied German Expressionism, though his main influences were French Fauvists and Expressionists such as Van Gogh, Derain, Marquet, Van Dongen and Matisse, as well as the painters of the Provence and Marseille schools.
His style is recognizable for strong colours and thick black outlines around his figures. Pellegrin aimed to depict his own era, and each painting works like a story, an anecdote or a memory. When he revisits the past, he does so with affection rather than nostalgia. He is listed in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists (1999 and 2006) and exhibited regularly in galleries across southern France, as well as in London, Dubai, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Since 2000 his work has been held in the Modern Art Museum of Châteauneuf-le-Rouge.