Biography
Jared French was born in Ossining, NY in 1905. He attended school there until his family moved to Rutherford, NJ in 1919. After high school in Rutherford he attended Amherst College, graduating in 1925. The same year he entered classes at the Art Students League in New York. The following year, after enrolling in an etching class, he met the artist Paul Cadmus, with whom he was to enjoy a long relationship. Cadmus had had his eye on commercial art, but French persuaded him to focus on fine art instead.
French took a tour of Spain in 1927, and, beginning in 1929, started working full-time on an art career. Around this time Luigi Lucioni painted a portrait of French, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. French and Cadmus spend 1931-1933 in an extended European tour. French joined the mural and easel painting section of the Public Works of Art Project in 1933. His work for the project was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. This marked the start of a long series of exhibits of French's work. In 1935, for example, his work was shown in Seattle, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia. He was part of exhibits at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940 and 1941, as well as other showings in the United States and abroad.
In 1937 French married Margaret Hoening, an artist whom he had met at the Art Students League. Jared and Margaret, along with Cadmus and his wife spent their summers on Fire Island from 1937-1945. They posed for photographs, taken for their amusement, but clearly influential for the future direction of French's art. They labeled their collaboration PaJaMa for the first letters of Paul's, Jared's and Margaret's names.
In the late 1930s French painted several murals: "Meal Time with the Early Coal Miners" (1938) for the Plymouth, PA Post Office, "Stuart’s Raiders at the Swollen Ford" (1939) for the Richmond, VA Parcel Post Building, and a seven-panel mural (1939) for a school in West Coxsackie, NY. In 1938 French designed costumes for Lincoln Kirstein's production of "Billy the Kid." The same year he posed for photos taken by his friend George Platt Lynes.
In 1942 French was part of the "Artists for Victory" show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the "20th Century Portraits" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and a traveling exhibit "Art in War." 1943 saw his work in the exhibit "Realists and Magic Realists" at the Museum of Modern Art. A retrospective of paintings and drawings by Jared French was held at the Edwin Hewitt Gallery in New York in 1955. And additional exhibits of French's work were put on at the Banfer Gallery in 1965, 1967 and 1969. In 1967 French received a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1969-1988 he lived in Rome, Italy, where he died in 1988.
Critical Analysis
Shortly after Jared French met Paul Cadmus, he persuaded his new friend to abandon his pursuit of commercial art and focus on what French called "real painting." This required both technique and concepts. It is clear that French himself became a consumate master of technique. His sketches have the look of the work of old masters. And his paintings have elements that prefigure the idea of hyperrealism. He was a master in the use of egg tempera which allowed for precise brushstrokes and exquisite detail.
Where French, Cadmus and their mutual friend George Tooker really distinguish themselves is in the concept they developed, which has been referred to as magic realism. In many of French's paintings there are figures portrayed with precise realism, but posed in enigmatic or dreamlike tableaux. The result borders upon surrealism. Many of French's figure refer to metaphorical subjects, and French himself alluded to Jungian psychology as a means of explaining his work. He chose, however, not to elaborate on this idea, leaving viewers to deal with their own disquietude.
The complex relationships among French, Cadmus, Tooker and their various lovers have made these artists something of icons for the gay community. They were open about their sexuality in an era where this was rare. And the art they developed formed a counterpoint to the dominant trend toward Abstract Expressionism.
Murals
- Plymouth, Pennsylvania - Post Office: Meal Time with the Early Coal Miners
- Richmond, Virginia - Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse: Jeb Stuart
- Richmond, Virginia - Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse: John Pelham
- Richmond, Virginia - Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse: Stuart's Raiders at the Swollen Ford
References
- Fire Island Art history - PaJaMa: Paul Cadmus, Jared & Margaret French (Fire Island Pines Historical Society).
- Jared French (Whitney Museum of American Art).
- Jared French (Artnet).
- Jared French (askART).
- Jared French (Wikipedia).
- Ellisa Rolle, Jared French and Paul Cadmus, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings December 7 (2014).
- Jared French Is Dead; Figural Artist Was 82, New York Times January 20 (1988).
- PaJaMa (Keith de Lellis Gallery).
- Roberta Smith, PaJaMa, Whose Photographs Breathed Eroticism, New York Times November 5 (2015).
- WPA Muralist Gets Into Trouble By Copying From Photographs, Life Magazine February 27 p 62 (1939).