Jean Jansem

Born Hovhannes Semerdjian to an Armenian family in Turkey, the painter Jean Jansem fled the genocide and spent his early childhood in Greece. After settling in Paris in the 1930s, he studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs. Inspired by Francisco de Goya and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Jansem is known for his still lifes and moody portraits posed against brushy backdrops. He was called a miserablist for his depiction of impoverished people. Jansem debuted his work at the 1939 Salon des Indépendants in Paris and achieved international recognition when he won the Comparaison Prize in Mexico in 1958. In 1990, his work reached an auction record of $105,000 for the painting Two Women and Child. Two Japanese museums—in Ginza, Tokyo, and Azumino, Nagano Prefecture—are dedicated to his work. He was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters in 1997 and a knighthood of the French Legion of Honor in 2003, as well as the Medal of Honor of the Republic of Armenia in 2010. Jansem died in Paris in 2013.