Jean GEOFFROY dit GEO (Marennes 1853 - Paris 1924) - Lot 22

Jean GEOFFROY dit GEO (Marennes 1853 - Paris 1924) At the Forge Graphite signed lower right H_26.5 ; W_16.5 cm This drawing is a study for A La Forge, reproduced in the Figaro Illustré of 1901 n°13 page 10. Jean Geoffroy repeatedly depicted the teaching of manual trades, and in particular the demanding work of iron in his work Ecole professionnelle à Dellys près d'Alger (1899). This large canvas, now housed in the Musées des Beaux Arts de Rouen, is part of a group of five works by the artist commissioned by the French Ministry of Education in 1893. It includes a depiction of a primary school class in Brittany and another of a Franco-Arab class in Tlemcen, Algeria. All were exhibited at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, at a time when Jules Ferry was transforming education and instituting public, secular and compulsory education. Bibliography : Maryse Aleksandrowski, Alain Mathieu, Dominique Lobstein, Henry Jules Jean Geoffroy dit Géo (1853-1924), Ilustria, 2012, p. 52