Provenance:

Private Collection, France

Description:

Jonas was one of the most important and prolific illustrators of actions during World War I. Before this he had studied in Valenciennes and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was elected a member of the Société des Artistes français in 1904 and exhibited here regularly. He was mobilized in December 1914 and at the beginning of 1915 was given the official title of military painter to the ‘Musée de l’Armée’ in Paris. He travelled great distances to record sections of the front line, producing 1000s of drawings, oils and sketches (see photo of artist sketching amongst the ruins).

Jonas was part of the unique French Olympic painting team in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, which was eventually won by the Swedish painter, David Wallin. After this he was commissioned to design a series of banknotes by the Banque de France and to decorate three pavilions at the 1937 World Fair.

In between the Wars, Jonas spent much time at home in the Nord-Pas de Calais region where he recorded many characters working in the vast Mining Basin of the Nord-Pas de Calais. His local concession was the Compagnie des mines d’Anzin which lay just to the north of Valenciennes in the East of the Basin and the Bleuse-Borne pit (see illus). The work in the mines was hard, dangerous and unhealthy but the miners were paid well and given housing as well as welfare and pensions. This meant they were better off than in many other industries. The mines were badly damaged during the First World War and once reopened were populated by a large number of Polish miners who replaced ones the French lost during the war. It would appear, though, that Monsieur Mirland was not Polish, but French. A further study by Jonas, of a figure from the mines depicted a Galibot (a young child employed in the mines [see illus]) from Bleuse-Borne, sold at Herbette auction on 4^th February 2024, lot 123. Over two billion tons of coal were extracted from the Basin between the early 18^th Century until the closure of the last pit in October 1990. Despite their obvious hardship both the young boy and Mr Mirland appear jovial and healthy. Jonas has certainly captured the humanity and personalities of both sitters, a fine skill of his that earned him the moniker of ‘peintre des mineurs’.