Gustave-Henri Jossot
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Gustave-Henri Jossot, also known as Abdul Karim Jossot (Dijon, France, April 16, 1866-Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, April 7, 1951), was a French caricaturist, illustrator and Orientalist painter.
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[edit] Work
Jossot started his career under the guidance of Jean Paul Laurens and Eugène Carrière. His style as a cartoonist is immediately recognizeable for its expressive reference to the cloisonism introduced by Emile Bernard. He travelled in Brittany and may have been influenced by the Pont-Aven school.
He is mainly remembered for the mark he left on several special issues of Paris journals, most notably l'Assiette au beurre, contributors to which included Kees Van Dongen, Félix Vallotton,František Kupka, Steinlen, Adolphe Willette, and Jacques Villon.
Much of his work lampooned the bourgeoisie, as can be seen from the titles of the illustrated books he produced: Artistes et Bourgeois (Paris: Louis Michaud 1896); Minces de trognes (Paris: Hazard, 1896); Viande de Bourgeois (Paris: Louis Michaud, 1906).
His work was shown at several major collective exhibitions in Paris: Salon de la Société Nationale de Beaux Arts (1895); Salon d'Automne (1908 to 1911); Salon des Indépendants (1910 and 1911).
At public auction in New York (June 12, 1980) a painting of Jossot's was sold with the remarkable title "Anti Nabis" (ref: Bénézit 1999). This work, dated 1894, refers to Les Nabis, an important influence at the time.
[edit] Convictions and conversion
Jossot was branded an anarchist, which he denied. Although he was never a militant, he was certainly an acid critic of the social and political systems of his time.
Following journeys to Tunisia in 1896 and 1904, he moved definitively to Sidi Bou Said in 1910.
In 1913, Jossot converted to Islam, taking the Muslim name Abdul Karim. For some time, he followed the well-known Algerian Sufi shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi. Jossot was not the only French painter of his time to convert to Islam and Sufism: others included Ivan Aguéli and Etienne Dinet.
Writing in the Dépêche tunisienne (10 February 1913), Jossot contrasted the falseness of Western civilisation with the simplicity of Islam, and praised Islam for having "no mysteries, no dogmas, no priests, almost no ceremonies," and for being "the most rational religion in the world."
He continued to paint in the Orientalist style, and died in Sidi Bou Said in 1951. He received a simple civil burial, from which some have deduced that he had by then ceased to practice Islam.
[edit] References
- E.Bénézit: "Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs -nouvelle édition:Jaques Busse" Paris, Gründ 1999.
- Marie Bouchard: "Henri Gustave Jossot" in: "Bulletin du Club Français de la Médaille" no 70-71 Paris, 1er trimestre, 1981
[edit] Additional Reading
- David Sweetman: "Explosive Acts: Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Félix Fénéon and the Art & Anarchy of the Fin de Siécle" New York, Simon & Schuster 1999
- Roger Shattuck: "The Banquet Years: The origins of the Avant-garde in France, 1885 to World War I" U.S.A., Vintage Books 1968
