Jean Crotti (24 April 1878 – 30 January 1958) was a French painter. Crotti was born in

Bulle Bulle (; frp, Bulo ) is a municipality in the district of Gruyère in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. In January 2006 Bulle incorporated the formerly independent municipality of La Tour-de-Trême. History Ancient times Bulle is first ...

, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

to study art at the '' Académie Julian''. Initially he was influenced by

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, then by Fauvism and Art Nouveau. Around 1910 he began to experiment with Orphism, an offshoot of Cubism, and a style that would be enhanced by his association in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

and

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...

. A refugee from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he looked to America as a place where he could live and develop his art. In New York, he shared a studio with Marcel Duchamp and met his sister, Suzanne Duchamp. She was part of the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

movement in which Crotti would become involved. In 1916, he exhibited Orphist-like paintings, several of which had religious titles that also included his ''Portrait of Marcel Duchamp'' and his much discussed ''Les Forces MÈcaniques de l'amour Mouvement'', created by using found objects. In the fall of 1916, Crotti separated from his wife, Yvonne Chastel, and returned to Paris. He had begun a relationship with Suzanne Duchamp that would culminate in his divorce in 1919 and immediate marriage to Suzanne. An artist in her own right, she would greatly influence Jean Crotti's painting. In 1920, he produced one of his best known works, a portrait of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. He would be part of the 1925 ''Exposition International'' in Paris, and the International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926 - 1927. Over the ensuing years, he would create numerous paintings and be the subject for several solo exhibitions at major galleries in England, France, Germany, and the United States. Crotti died in Paris. Jean Crotti's heirs donated his personal papers to the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, where they can be consulted by researchers. In Spring 2011, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art showed an exhibition, ''Inhabiting Abstraction'', including important examples from every significant phase and development in the realm of abstraction that Crotti explored, as well as one-of-a-kind works such as "Parterre de reve" (1920), in which he framed his painting palette and then signed it.

References

External links

Website of Jean Crotti (by Jean Carlo Bertoli)

Jean Crotti papers, 1913-1973, bulk 1913-1961
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Jean Crotti, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crotti, Jean 1878 births 1958 deaths Académie Julian alumni 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists Swiss emigrants to France 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 20th-century Swiss painters Dada French people of Italian descent Art Nouveau painters People from Bulle Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss dadaist 19th-century French male artists 19th-century Swiss male artists 20th-century Swiss male artists