Edmond-Francois Aman-Jean
(1860-1935)
By Wendy Owen

Born in Chevry-Cossigny, France, Aman studied under Henri Lehmann at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Aman became friends with Pointillist painter Georges Suerat, as well as poets Mallarmé and Verlaine, and in 1886, traveled to Rome on a study scholarship.

Hesiod Listening to the Inspiration of the Muse
 

Aman is best known for his paintings and prints of “ladies of luxury.” A typical Aman scene consists of a beautiful French woman of the bourgeois class, reclining and gazing into space.

Confiding Secrets, 1903
 

Though Aman was surrounded by the avant-garde movement through his friends and contemporaries, he retained a fairly classical style. Though not quite an Impressionist, leaning more towards Classical styling, Aman embraced the importance of color and brushstrokes. He was known for his undulating brush strokes in his oil and canvas works, which would give his painting a grainy but fluid feel.

Au Flanc Du Vase, 1921
 

In many of his compositions, Aman’s palate takes on a distinctly rosy hue, certainly in an effort to complement his female subjects.

Young Girl With a Peacock, 1895
 

Aman was also well-known for being a pastellist; particularly, an artist who uses ground pigments in crayon form to sketch pictures. He would also be commissioned to create decorative panels, such as the ones he did for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Sorbonne.

Like many other turn of the century French artists, Aman also tried his hand at poster art. One of his most notable poster prints entitled “Beatrix” depicts the rose and the cross, a particularly popular religious theme of the era, and was in fact created for the Salons de la Rose Cross.

Beatrix, 1892
 

One thing that may make authenticating a piece of art by Aman difficult is his inconsistency in style and method. Unlike some of his other contemporaries like Monet, Renoir or Degas, Aman does not have a signature style or method of his own that is easily noted. He also was not consistent about where he placed his signature and date—sometimes on the back of his paintings, and other times, directly on the front like this painting “Portrait of a Woman” 1927.

Portrait of A Woman, 1927
 

Today, Aman’s work is housed world-wide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Paintings, prints or sketches of Aman’s may be found all over France as well as in Rome and surrounding areas, perhaps hanging on a wall or stashed away in storage.

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