Jean Rachmiel (1871-1954) American, oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Oil on canvas painting depicting a cobbler sitting and working.

Condition: Crackling paint.

Overall Size: 27 1/4 x 33 in.

Sight Size: 19 x 25 in.

#1107

Jean Rachmiel was born in Haverstraw-on-Hudson, New York in 1871. His father, renowned landscape painter Alexandre Rachmiel, trained him in drawing and painting from an early age. At 16 Jean studied at the Art Students League in New York City under George de Forest Brush. In 1890 he went to Paris to study under Jules Lefebvre and later at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Leon Bonnat. In school he excelled as a figure painter but preferred to paint scenes of Champagne and the peasants that resided there, eventually becoming known as the “American Millet.” Jean exhibited annually at the Salon from 1898 on and was awarded the Salon’s gold medal in 1910 for “Le Braconnier.” American collectors would travel to Paris to purchase his paintings and commission him to do portraits. Jean exhibited at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Art in 1902 and decorated the Corcoran Art Gallery with several large murals along with his father between 1903 and 1905. During World War I he worked as a Supply Officer in Marseilles with the United States Shipping Board, and in 1944 he went to work with the Artistic Recovery Commission assisting in the recovery of works of art stolen by the Nazis. In his final years Jean moved back to his homeland and continued to paint until he died in Detroit, Michigan in 1954.