Jean Vigoureux

His parents were the French sculptor (born in Avallon, France on April 4, 1884) and Jeanne Lise Marie Emma Fonssagrives (born in 1887 in Saigon, Vietnam), a singer and pianist.

Jean Henri Vigoureux (December 21, 1907 – March 30, 1986) was a French-born artist who became a United States citizen.

He was best known for his sardonic, unflinching, politically provocative drawings of daily life in pre-World War II Paris and in French Indochina, where his mother was born and where he traveled as a young man.

He was the first-born son of French sculptor Pierre Vigoureux and the older brother of celebrated photographer Fernand Fonssagrives.

Jean Vigoureux was born in Paris.

Pierre and Jeanne married on October 17, 1907; Jean was born two months later.

They had two other children, Fernand (born June 8, 1910) and Madeleine, (born c. 1914).

Pierre served in the French Army in World War I from 1914 to 1918 and received the Croix de Guerre, with Honorable Mention.

After the war, he was commissioned by the French state to make war memorials in various locations across France.

He also exhibited at the National Society of Fine Arts (1920-1922) and the Salon des Tuileries (1923-1934).

Jean was 14 when his parents divorced on July 5, 1922.

Pierre subsequently married (April 30, 1924) and divorced (October 20, 1926) Yvonne Stern.

Jeanne married a tenor named Edgar Allemann.

While Jean retained the name Vigoureux, Fernand and Madeleine decided to adopt their mother's maiden name, Fonssagrives.

Because of military conscription, Jean was required to serve in the French Army for one year (c. 1927–1929).

Following was another year with the French Army in French Indochina.

The late 1930s found Jean and Fanny living in California.

She was a music professor at the University of Southern California.

Jean worked at RKO studios in Hollywood.

Jean and his father both exhibited works at the Salon de l'Essor in Dijon in 1933, where Jean's works included his painting La Boulangerie.

The Parisian journal Comoedia called it a promising debut for a young painter of "frank and personal talent."

Jean also exhibited in the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Independants in Paris.

He became director of the National School of Fine Arts of Dijon (1935-1942) and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1936.

Jean may have met his future wife Fanny G. Varnum in France, where she researched the life of François Jean de Chastellux and wrote a doctoral thesis submitted to the Faculty of Letters, University of Paris, published in 1936 as Un philosophe cosmopolite du XVIIle slecle, le chevalier de Chastellux (Paris: Librarie Rodstein).

Sometime after 1937, Jean and Fanny were in the United States and married, with a marriage license obtained in New York.

Jean's first gallery show in the United States was May 5–30, 1938, at the Chelsea Galleries in Hollywood.

The Los Angeles Times wrote: "The paintings, which strongly assert the third dimension, are of the deliberately 'proletarian' sort, the figures of workmen and their families clumsily drawn in gloomy colors to convey the idea of their thwarted lives. The drawings, which show an anti-imperialist slant on French officialdom in Indo-China, prove that Vigoureux is an able draughtsman and a remarkable and painstaking designer."

The Hollywood Citizen-News wrote: "From the standpoint of originality, the oils of Jean Vigoureux…go far in the direction of excellence. He paints solidly, somberly, in a restricted range of unusual colors and tones."

The French-language newspaper Le Courrier Français wrote (translated from French): "The opportunity is too rarely given to us to admire the works of a young French painter with more future than past. Mr. Jean Vigoureux gives us this opportunity. His most remarkable works are, in our opinion, the four paintings on Indo-China:The Arroyo; The Annamite Farm; Annamese Workers; Ruins of Angkor ."

In November 1938, Vigoureux had a show at the Kievits Galleries in Pasadena.

In the Pasadena Star-News Jules Kievits described his work as "Modern, but not insane. Colorful, although subdued, silver greys predominating. His subjects are chosen from real life, and he does not adhere to 'isms' nor follow any 'school."

The San Marino Tribune wrote:"There prevails a note of undeniable interest in the exhibit of eighteen oil paintings, and many drawings now on display at the Kievits Galleries…The interest is two-fold, firstly, it gives us an idea of what is felt by the young artist, at the other side of the Atlantic, and secondly, how it is expressed and rendered. The present prevailing conditions naturally strongly influenced the artist. The fifteen paintings brought with him from France, do not deal with the beauty of the landscape, city, or human beings, but enter into the present struggle of humanity, which is facing the people of France at every step. It portrays people on the street, in their shops, and in their homes. His paintings all pertain to people as they live now. How else could it be, that these observations are expressed in a low key? How else could it be, that only sparingly a note of joy, or a subject of cheer enters?

The artist could not have been true to these times, when the great happenings of this day so dominate.

But in every one of his works, there is a beauty of its own, a beauty rendered in a simple palette, where silver greys complement an arrangement of deep warm colors.

After leaving France, the artist…went to Indo-China.

It is interesting to see how the change of scenery influenced his palette.

In two of his works from there, The Home of the River [River Home, Saigon] and Indo-China Farmer, light is entering his canvas, joining his very correct drawing and compositions.

There also are a great many pen drawings, marvelous observation, painstaking execution, an exceptional gift for composition prevail through all of them.”"

The eighteen oil paintings exhibited at the Kievits Galleries:

This decision was later described in a review for a show held at the United American Artists Gallery in San Francisco from May 4–21, 1941; “This conviction and uncompromising courage has come to the 33-year old artist through personal experiences which include a first-hand knowledge of the workings of French (and English) imperialism when he voluntarily extended his period of compulsory military training in the French Army by another year in order to be able to visit French Indo-China.”