PAUL JOUVE | MOINE BOUDDHISTE MÉDITANT

Collection of the Jouve Family

Thence by descent

Collection of Jacques Lejeune, Paris

Collection of John W. Mecom, Jr., Houston, Texas

Christie's New York, December 9, 2014, lot 548

Raymond Bouyer, "Paul Jouve," L'Art et les Artistes, November 1924, pp. 58-59 (for related paintings of the Bayon)

Pierre Loti, Un Pèlerin d'Angkor, Paris, 1930, cover (for an illustration based on the present lot)

Charles Terrasse, Paul Jouve, Paris, 1948, p. 75 (for the present lot illustrated)

Félix Marcilhac, Paul Jouve, Paris, 2005, p. 151 (for the present lot illustrated)

In 1922, Paul Jouve left his native France to embark on a journey that would profoundly impact his life and artistic career. The four months that he spent in Angkor between October 1922 and January 1923 resulted in extraordinary artistic achievements best exemplified by the present lot, one of the very few monumental works that he painted in Angkor.

Jouve’s journey to Asia occurred at the pinnacle of his artistic career. At that time, he was best known as one of the most successful animalier and orientalist artists of his generation, having exhibited alongside established artists like Jacques Nam and Édouard-Marcel Sandoz. He also had close working relationships with such craftsmen as Jean Dunand and Jean Goulden with whom he regularly exhibited at the Galerie Georges Petit throughout the 1920s. Jouve’s powerful depictions of panthers specifically helped him secure important book illustration commissions, like the 1914 edition of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. One of Jouve’s panthers constitutes the centerpiece of a coffret by Jean Dunand which is offered in this collection (lot 38) and provides a particularly striking example of a successful collaboration between the two artists.

It comes as no surprise that Jouve had an interest in exploring the Far East. His fascination with Cambodia specifically, then under French colonial rule and a part of Indochina, had increased over the previous decade through the publication of orientalist texts praising the wonders of Khmer religious architecture. The descriptions of temples and tropical wilderness in Pierre Loti’s Pèlerin d'Angkor

(1912), which Jouve eventually illustrated upon his return, had informed his decision to visit Angkor Wat, the site of a Khmer temple that remained relatively inaccessible by the time he arrived. Having won a grant from the Indo-Chinese government in 1921, Jouve was able to devote much of his time in Angkor to his craft. From the windows of his hotel room, he was able to marvel at the towers of the temple rising up from the jungle. As described by Paul Terrasse in his 1948 biography, Jouve would often wake up early in the morning and set up his easel directly in front of the majestic statues of the Buddhist deities, finding inspiration in the mysterious smile carved into the ancient stone. The monumental and multi-faceted tower of the Bayon, the central subject of the present lot, kept him occupied for weeks on end. He depicted the towers from multiple angles using a variety of mediums, from chalk to oil painting, and was often joined by surrounding jungle animals such as monkeys and elephants. The work that resulted from these direct observations, as Terrasse pointed out, was filled with the artistic ardor and nostalgia of the traveler who knew that his days in Angkor were limited. 

Moine Bouddhiste Méditant is a monumental work both in terms of dimensions and artistic scope. The painting’s dramatic size and impeccable sense of composition allow for the inclusion of superb architectural details, showcasing the Bayon in all of its grandeur. The stoic and respectful figure of the Buddhist monk at the foreground mirrors the peacefulness of the four faces of Lokesvara commanding most of the composition. In many ways, the painting became an iconic representation of Angkor that reached a wide audience, a cropped version of which was featured on the cover of a subsequent edition of Pierre Loti’s travelogue. Moine remains to this day one of the earliest painterly representations of the Buddhist site by a western artist, and a superb example of the type of Orientalist visual culture that permeated the European imagination in the first half of the 20th Century.