Jean Luc Langlois

Jean-Luc Langlois from Normandy developed a passion for drawing and painting at a very early age. Following eight years of evening classes at the School of Fine Arts in Rouen, four of which specialising in nude painting, he decided to devote himself to figurative art. Since 1994, he has participated in numerous regional exhibitions and salons, including the Maritime Salons in Paris between 2001 and 2012. His career is studded with numerous awards and distinctions.
The style that Jean-Luc Langlois has honed over his long career has become more minimalist over the years. After experimenting with different techniques (watercolours, oils and gouaches), which hold no more secrets for him, he has now adopted acrylics, working them exclusively with a palette knife and applying them in flat tints. Having practised all genres, including the nude, still-life, and particularly landscape art because seascapes have always fascinated him, he now devotes himself to the portrait and urban landscapes with a recent series entitled “New York”.
Through his constant exploration, the artist has attained in his portraits a sketch and a focus on his models’ psychology, with a great sparseness of means and a limited palette. Cities have also become a new and fruitful source of inspiration, allowing him to develop an accomplished and very personal style. “New York” is an opportunity for the painter to portray his own vision of the city, which is vertical, vertiginous and captivating. His compositions are always perfectly balanced, emphasising geometry and verticality thanks to his skilful rearrangement of space with the knife. His artwork is enhanced by a harmonious palette, which confers carefully studied effects of light and shadow.
Jean-Luc Langlois’ pictorial creation is remarkable for its coherence between stylised figurative realism and prevailing harmony and beauty. His paintings are to the point and promise plenty more surprises.

Francine BUNEL-MALRAS / Art Historian

Born in Normandy, near Rouen, Jean-Luc LANGLOIS studied at the “Fine Art School” and dedicated himself in representational painting, either with oil paint or gouache, in which he expresses his deep passion for nature, and liquid elements (from wide or narrow rivers to the sea).
And believe me, during those years of work at the “Aitre Saint Maclou“ Jean-Luc LANGLOIS acquired a perfect mastery of composition and of perspective which are convenient for the realism of his beaches, seascapes, rural sites, represented with a considerable correctness allying harmony and beauty.
Under a wide and virile touch a motive, a site with a geometrical balance, a real lesson of serene and expressive superiority of values, are built. This technique achieves what we could call a challenge : to represent vast landscaps, sun-soaket beaches flooded with color where the successive shots bring a vital impression making any character superfluous.
Master of his composition and of his palette, Jean-Luc LANGLOIS captures shapes with a persuasive brush which appeals more to the thought than the visual effect. He emphasizes the natural with a quiet evocative “maestria“ hidden by the talent.

André RUELLAN / art critic

Nato nel 1948 a Rouen in Normandia.
Dopo una formazione assidua alla scuola delle belle arti di Rouen, Jean-Luc LANGLOIS, si è consacrato con successo alla pittura figurativa praticata all’olio o al guazzo nella quale esprime profondamente una passione in quello che concerne la natura, l’elemento liquido, dai fiumi alle rive marine.
E credetemi : durante suoi anni di lavoro a « l’Aitre Saint Maclou » di Rouen, Jean-Luc LANGLOIS a acquisito una perfetta padronanza della composizione e della perspettiva che conviene particolarmente al realismo delle sue spiaggie, marine, siti rurali, che definisce con un’apprezzabile giustezza conformando ancor di piu l’armonia e la bellazza dell’opera.
Con delle pennellate larghe sicure e virile si edificano un motivo, un sito di cui l’equilibro quasi-geometrico rapresenta delle vere lezioni di valori espressivi. Questa tecnica potrebbe essere una sfida legata alla presentazione dei vasti paesaggi, delle rive sconvolte dalle luci e dai colori, piani successivi propongono un’impressione vitale dove dei personaggi non sarebbero di nessuna utilità.
Maestro della sua composizione e dai suoi colori, Jean-Luc LANGLOIS integra i suoi motivi in un’evocazione data da un pennellata persuasiva che trattiene piu un pensiero che l’effetto visuale, privilegiando l’impatto della natura con una maestria piena di vita intensa amplificata dal suo talento.

André RUELLAN / critico d’arte

The price of discretion

It was during the sixties that Jean-Luc Langlois decided to enroll at the School of Fine Arts in Rouen, and learn under Mouillé. For two years, he studied drawing, bas-relief and modelling. This training was to prove useful throughout the rest of his career. He exhibited in salons for a long time, too patient and discrete to claim a place among the big names in the painting game. Yet he has now been painting for four decades, acquiring a mastery of composition that allows the now-proficient painter to recognize without difficulty the originality of his work.

Thanks to his synoptic vision, Jean-Luc Langlois succeeds in reproducing landscapes by starting from his defining lines, thereby getting to the crux according to a well-proven method. His admiration for the work of Daniel Caplain is undoubtedly not imperceptible in the style which he has crafted for himself at the expense of hard work and that he led, we note, far from schools and other closed groups. A visit to his studio quickly testifies to the painter’s capabilities, which would merit more ardent support among local art-lovers. Is Rouen not a town that prides itself on having such a large number of them?

Even if the cliffs of the Pays de Caux region and the shores of the Côtes d’Armor constitute one of Jean-Luc Langlois’ preferred axes of research, his love of Italy took him towards Venice, the legendary city that can be a real head-ache for painters, so many times has the subject been treated and rehashed. Langlois’ geometric technique of using solid-coloured fills distinguishes him from a certain number of his contemporaries. His passion for Leopardi’s language also led him to learn Italian, which he has been studying assiduously for six months. Moreover he is treasurer of the Rouen-Salerno Exchange Committee, which goes to show how anchored and firm his passion is.

The painter’s fondness for the coast and for the call of the ocean is illustrated by his biannual participation in the Salon National de la Marine, which is reputedly subject to a rigorous selection process. The harmonies from which his paintings derive their interest hinge upon nuance and appeasement rather than a loud palette. Similarly, he is more sensitive to fishing boats than to the regattas from whence many painters draw their inspiration. He thereby avoids monotony, seeking as much as possible to renew his themes each time he catches a glimpse of a yet unexplored path. The use of gouache on card is one of the specialties that defines Jean-Luc Langlois’ work. Attentive to architecture, he also took an interest in the silos in the port of Rouen, which are perfectly staged in one of his most representative paintings. Tackling the subject without any preparatory study or sketch, he makes direct use of the paintbrush, juxtaposing the various tones with great finesse. The result for the spectator is a sensation of calm and well-being in the face of vast expanses of earth. We sincerely love this way of entering into the gentleness and silence of the landscape.

Luis PORQUET, writer and art critic - March 2013