Jacques Berland Exhibition. In Praise of a Little Master

It was in 1955 ; he was 37 years old. We imagine him as he must have been at that time, and as he painted himself in a superb self-portrait: a man with black hair, a fine face, of discreet elegance. In detail, the grey of a suit, the collar of a shirt, the knot of a tie — but mostly, in order to stare us soflty, two big dark eyes under heavy eyelids, two gigantic eyes that seems astonished… Does it mean that Jacques Berland, in fronf of the mirroras well as in front of his admirers, was evaluating the path he had taken? Because it was there from then on: a noticed talent, to whom the Charpentier gallery had asked to take part to the ‘École de Paris’ exhibition… For those who do not know, or those who have forgotten, it is appropriate to recall here what represented the Chaprentier gallery in the middle of the 20^th century : one of the best addresses in the art world! A house that prided itself on stubbornly revealing young painters, and surrounding them with the supreme masters. Thus Jacques Berland tasted the happiness of hanging his paintings alongside Picasso, Buffet, Utrillo, Van Dongen, Vlaminck, Staël, Bazaine, Manessier and Vasarely. He was launched.

But launched towards what? If he had been asked the question, for sure this farmer’s son, born in Pré-Saint-Évroult, in Eure-et-Loire, would have had a hard time answering… What did he want indeed? To paint. And thus to join the history of painting, which he knew better that anyone, studying it continuously in the museums and books. So much so that from 1962 onwards, this man who had remained a prisoner of war in Germany for five years, from 1940 to 1945, and whose wartime godmother was the devoted and attentive Marie Laurencin, so much so that from 1962 onwards, the very erudite Jacques Berland was to become a lecturer at the national museums, with a predilection for the Louvre! Are we to understand that he no longer believed in his own career?