Raw

Rediscovering Art by Women

Jane Graverol (1905 - 1984)

Eloge de la Folie

, 1971

Catalogue essay coming soon…

H55cm
x W46cm
Oil on panel, Signed

Graverol Graverol

Jane Graverol (1905 - 1984)

Jane Graverol was born in Ixelles, Belgium, on 18 December 1905. Her father was the Symbolist illustrator and writer Alexandre Graverol. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Etterbeek, she attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where she studied under Montald Constant and Jean Delville. She initially made her name in the field of still life and landscape and had her first solo exhibition in 1927, but in the late 1930s, she embraced Surrealism. In a striking departure from her male colleagues’ work, her compositions mainly centred on strong and determined female figures. Blending fairytale with the grotesque, and often depicting the erotic female body, Graverol described her paintings as "waking, conscious dreams". In 1949 she met members of the Belgian Surrealist group and in 1953 helped found the Temps Mêlés group in Verviers, which had leanings toward pataphysics - the absurdist, pseudo-scientific, literary invention of the French writer Alfred Jarry. She was a co-founder of two significant surrealist publications - the Temps Mêlés, and in 1954 along with Mariën and Paul Nougé, the avant-garde review Les Lèvres Nues. In the 1960s, she made the acquaintance of André Breton, and later Marcel Duchamp in New York. Even though she subsequently moved to France, she stayed in close contact with the Belgian surrealist artists and exhibited in Belgium every year. She died in Fontainebleau on 24 April 1984.

Artworks by the same artist

Latest Posts

Follow us

Newsletter

Keep up-to-date with the latest news & events at

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.