389 - Mathurin MÉHEUT (1882–1958)

Mathurin MÉHEUT (1882–1958) Soldiers in the Trenches Mixed media on paper Monogrammed in the lower right corner on the soldier’s sleeve 95.5 x 62.5 cm (visible area) Framed under glass A copy of a letter from Mrs. Maryvonne Méheut dated February 26, 1980, attesting to the authenticity of this work, is included. Resale royalty payable by the purchaser. The condition report is available upon request at the following email address: contact@neo-encheres.com Description: Born in Lamballe in 1882 into a family of artisans, Mathurin Méheut studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes and then at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, while working for the magazine *Art et Décoration*. In 1914, a travel grant from the Albert Kahn Foundation took him to Japan; the declaration of war cut short this journey. Drafted into the 136th Infantry Regiment, he served in Artois, Argonne, and other sectors of the front before being assigned to the Army Survey Corps in 1916. Throughout the war, he never stopped drawing: sketches of trenches, lookouts, scenes from the barracks, and nearly a thousand letters to his wife, many of which were illustrated. This perspective as an eyewitness, attentive to the daily lives of the soldiers, connects him to other Breton artists of the Great War such as Jean-Julien Lemordant, Jeanne Malivel, and Jean-Marie Conseil, and foreshadows his future work as an illustrator for writers Maurice Genevoix and Roland Dorgelès. An official painter for the Ministry of Defense beginning in 1921, a decorator of ocean liners, a ceramist for Henriot in Quimper and for Sèvres, he notably trained Yvonne Jean-Haffen and remains, alongside Charles Cottet, Lucien Simon, and Henri Rivière, one of the great names in Breton art. The Mathurin Méheut Museum in Lamballe houses his collection.