Exhibition Animalia Mathurin Meheut Damien Colcombet

Exhibition Animalia
Mathurin Méheut & Damien Colcombet

From 6 May to 15 July 2022

This is an exhibition that La Fontaine would have called for: “Animalia”! In other words, the meeting between two great talents of painting and sculpture. That of the mythical Mathurin Méheut, of which we present the 26 unpublished plates of an extraordinary animal alphabet. That of Damien Colcombet, a powerful artist whose works have already taken their place in prestigious collections such as that of Alain Delon.

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Exhibited works

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Mathurin Méheut
ABC

26 never-seen before prints gathered in an artist’s book
The prestigious commissions that great names of pottery works like Jules Henriot in Quimper, Villeroy and Boch, the Manufacture de Sèvres have ordered from the painter are known. He also made decorations for villas and numerous liners, including four for the unforgettable SS Normandie. But that his big-hearted had fulfilled the most unexpected of orders was not known: to draw for kids, one by one, the twenty-six plates of a magnificent animal ABC.
Truth be told, the ABC is exceptional, of a striking and lively graphic force. Clearly, Mathurin Méheut took real joy out of choosing these animals, painting them, staging them. He chose common animals like the squirrel, the frog, the goose, the fox or the cow. He chose unexpected animals like the xiphidion (long-winged conehead), a small cricket that might become famous thanks to this ABC. But he also chose exotic animals, including the fascinating tiger, which was not randomly chosen. Writer Roman Petroff* reminds in his introduction: all through his life, Mathurin Méheut dreamed of illustrating The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. This ABC can be seen as the completed part of this dream..

Composed in the fifties, this ABC remained unseen until today. We only know it was piously preserved from generation to generation, before being recently acquired by a great collector. The latter wished to introduce and share this treasure – without altering it… So the idea to publish fifty copies of it came, printed on pure rag paper, in the long-standing tradition of French bibliophily. In short, the idea was to turn a treasure into another treasure that could join museums, public collections and passionate connoisseur’s libraries. It was made for those who know Mathurin Méheut is an immense painter, and this unique work – carved for a child like The Little Prince – would be a work of art.

* Roman Petroff: painting expert and writer, specialist of Breton schools; the author is also Marin-Marie’s biographer, awarded for his works by the Grand Prize of the Académie de Marine.

Christophe Penot
Art editor