JAMES LE JEUNE R.H.A. (CANADIAN/IRISH 1910-1983) §
BATHERS
Auction: 29 March 2014 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Signed, oil on canvasboard
Dimensions
35cm x 45cm (13.5in x 17.5in)
Footnote
Note:
Le Jeune was born in Canada to a French/English father, a musician, and an Irish mother. His great uncle was the English Victorian painter Henry Le Jeune. He grew up in Dinard, Brittany and later in Northampton in England. During his artistic training he attended art schools in Paris, New York and London, mainly focusing on Architecture. When World War II broke out, he served in the British Army in Tunisia and Italy where he worked as an engineer with Bailey bridges and also did a lot of sketching and watercolours. Despite becoming an architect after the war, he never lost his passion for painting and in 1948 exhibited at the Royal Insititue of Oil Painters. From 1950 he settled in Ireland with his wife in County Wicklow first and then in Dublin where he stayed until his death. Deciding to paint full-time, in 1951 Le Jeune began exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy where he became a regular exhibitor for the next 31 years and a full RHA member in 1973. During the 1960s, he opened another studio in New York and spent some years travelling between the two cities. He is best known for his portrait, landscapes and seascapes.