Georges Focus

Georges Focus was a French engraver and painter who was born around 1639–1641 in Châteaudun and died on February 26 (or 27) 1708 in Paris. André Félibien calls him "Georges Faucus". He was a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, close to Charles Le Brun and Girard Audran. He is famous for the drawings he made while suffering from psychiatric troubles.

Family background Focus's family seems to have been moderately rich; his father owned a wool and twill shop in Paris.

Education Around the age of 15, Focus became an apprentice of Louis Elle.

The catalog of Focus engraved work was established first by Robert-Dumesnil (1836), then by Weigert as part of the effort to organize the French prints' department at the National French Library (1961). Only eight pieces are known, including a series of six prints representing Roman landscapes, dedicated to Charles Le Brun and published by Girard Audran in 1678.

Drawings by Focus have also been preserved, be they preparatory to his prints (School of Fine Arts, Besançon Museum) or independent from them (Louvre Museum). A much freer style drawing is kept in the Chicago Art Institute. Bernard Granger, professor of psychiatry at René Descartes University, proposes, with all due caution, the retrospective diagnosis of schizo-affective disorder.

Death and posterity According to Mariette, who wrote half a century after his death, Focus died at the Petites Maisons on February 27, 1708 (February 26, according to the list of academicians).

His work falls into oblivion until the end of the 20th century. A box kept since 1780 in a private family archive that contains a set of sheets signed by Focus was rediscovered in Paris in 2010.

Style Focus' prints are landscapes in an Italian style close to that of Gaspard Dughet, Francisque Millet or Étienne Allegrain. His drawings are similar to those by artists of outsider art, like Wolfli or Aloïse Corbaz.