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James Le Jeune RHA (1910 - 1983) was an Irish painter
Life and Work
James George Le Jeune was born in Saskatoon, Canada on 25 May 1910. He was the son of Anthony Le Jeune, a musician, of English and French descent, and an Irish mother.
His great uncle is the English Victorian artist/painter Henry Le Jeune When he was two his family moved to Dinard in Brittany where he attended a Christian Brothers School. He continued his education in a boarding school in Northampton, England.
His early training in art was in Paris and later in London at Heatherlys and the Byam Shaw School, and later at the Art Students League in New York.
Le Jeune studied Architecture at the London Polytechnic and when World War II broke out he served in the British Army in Africa and Italy. Following the end of hostilities he worked as an Architect but had not lost his interest in painting, in 1948 he exhibited at the Royal institute of Oil Painters and the same year he exhibited Fishermans Regatta at the Society of Marine Artists.
In 1950 he moved to Ireland with his family to Delgany in County Wicklow and practised as an Architect for a short time but gave this up to paint full time. In 1951 he began exhibiting at The Royal Hibernian Academy and was a regular exhibitor there until 1982.
His first one man show was at the Victor Waddington Gallery in 1954. In 1956 he had an exhibition in the Little Theatre, Brown Thomas. The Dublin Magazine commented: 'This artist's palette in landscape is inclined to be over-sombre; in his portraits on the other hand, his low tones give depth and background, and his subjects are almost startling in their truth and reality - seen with a touch of humour which stops short of caricature' (See Snoddy, p 344)
In 1960 he moved to his studio in Baggot Lane where he lived and worked until his death in 1983. Jimmy (as he was known) was a regular visitor to Searsons and The Waterloo in Baggot Street.
In 1961 he was appointed an associate of the RHA but did not become a full member until 1973.
During the late 1960s he also had a Studio in New York and he divided his time for some years painting between the two cities.
He died in January 1983.
Examples of his work
Examples of his work can be found in The National Gallery of Ireland, The National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland at the University of Limerick, The Abbey Theatre Dublin, Crawford Gallery Cork, Municipal Art Gallery Dublin, McKee Barracks, Kings Inns, and The United Arts Club.