Jean-Baptiste Valadié (b. 1933) is a French painter, sculptor, engraver, lithographer and illustrator. After studying applied arts in Paris, he held his first exhibition in Dakar in 1956 and has since exhibited worldwide; journeys to Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil left a lasting mark on his palette. His central theme is the eternal feminine – serene, graceful women bathed in warm light – alongside landscapes such as views of Venice.
Jean-Baptiste Valadié (b. 1933, Brive-la-Gaillarde) is a French painter, sculptor, engraver, lithographer and illustrator. He began his artistic training at the Cours Charpentier in Montparnasse and then studied applied arts in Paris for four years, graduating in 1955, while sketching at the Place du Tertre in Montmartre. A keen traveller, he held his first exhibition in Dakar in 1956 and exhibited in Algiers in 1960 during his military service. Since then he has built an international career, with exhibitions in France and across the world – from the United States and Japan to South Africa, Australia, Sweden and Switzerland. Journeys to Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil in the 1970s, where he studied Maya and Aztec civilisations, left a lasting mark on his palette. The central theme of his work is the eternal feminine: serene, graceful women bathed in warm light, portrayed with sensuality and restraint. He is also a fine landscape painter, able to transform a classical view – as in his images of Venice – with a flood of warm, harmonious colour. Over the years he mastered copper engraving and stone lithography, and his graphic work forms an important part of his oeuvre. Since 1986 he has lived and worked in Provence and in Morocco.
