Jules Cavaillès was part of the ‘Réalité Poétique’ group which included Christian Caillard, Maurice Brianchon, Kostia Térechtovich and André Planson. Their main aim was to imbue their work with a ‘joie de vivre’, revealing nature in all its glory. Like many inter-war artists, they were influenced by the Fauves colouration but with less intensity and more regard with to expressing a joy for life. The artist loved painting scenes evoking the pleasures of life, such as with Fenetre a Epineuil. Here, Cavaillès has juxtaposed vibrant yet harmonious touches of orange, yellow and green imbuing the painting with life and energy.
Born in 1901 in Carmaux. Cavaillès began his training as a technical draughtsman. It was during this period that he met the artist Bernard- Joseph Artigue, also known as ‘le père Artigue’, who was a good friend of the famous pointillist, Henri Martin, and who encouraged Cavaillès to travel to Paris to pursue the fine arts.
Cavaillès enrolled at the Academie Julian in 1925 and was exhibiting in the Parisian Salon by 1928. He was soon invited to display his work at the Salon des Tuileries in 1936 and was invited to help organise the 14th exhibition of the Artistes de ce Temps in the Petit-Palais. Furthermore, during the same year he received the Grant Blumenthal and was commissioned to decorate the Pavilion of Languedoc for the Éxposition Universelle.
Cavailles primarily worked in oils, gouache and pastel in order to achieve these vivid colours and his subject matters vary from portraits, nudes, still lifes, flowers, landscapes and animals.
