Bernard Lorjou

(French, 1908-1986)

French Expressionist painter Bernard Lorjou was born on September 9, 1908 to a poor family in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France. The youngest of three children, Lorjou lived in poverty most of his young life. In 1924, he headed to Paris, where he often slept in the Orsay train station. Things turned around in 1925 when he was hired as a textile designer by the silk house Ducharne. While there, he met his future companion, artist Yvonne Mottet.

With enough money to travel and paint full-time, Lorjou headed to Spain in 1931. He visited the Prado Museum in Madrid where he discovered the richly expressive styles of masters El Greco, Velázquez and Goya. Inspired, Lorjou began painting his socio-political views, which would manifest an even greater role in his later career.

Lorjou exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants in 1942, followed by his first solo exhibition at Galerie du Bac, Paris, featuring his painting Miracle de Lourdes. In 1948, he became a founding member of the anti-abstract art group L’homme Témoin – Man as Witness. The group of French artists, which included Lorjou, Mottet, Michel de Gallard, Paul Rebeyrolle and Michel Thomson, gained public attention during a 1948 exhibit at Galerie du Bac. The group was rooted in the basic needs of man, declaring “man is an eater of red meat, fried potatoes, fruit and cheese,” and believed that abstract artists had lost touch with daily life.

Beginning in 1950, Lorjou’s body of work encompassed paintings inspired by current events, including L'Age Atomique; La Peste en Beauce, warning against bacteriological warfare; and Matin du Couronnement, a controversial tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. In 1953, he exhibited Massacres de Rambouillet, a collection of works in reaction to the Soviet Union's invasion of Budapest. He continued these types of politically charged works for much of his later career, adapting his style yet always remaining constant to his use of bold images and rich, vibrant color. His medium of choice through the 1950s was oil, which allowed him to paint in his Expressionist impasto style. In the 1960s, he favored acrylics.

Lorjou’s body of work includes thousands of paintings, wood engravings, sculptures, lithographs, illustrations and murals. He died on January 26, 1986 at the age of 77 in St. Denis sur Loire. Lorjou’s works are still exhibited widely throughout the world, especially in France, the United States and in Japan.