Jeanne Champion

Jeannine Gabrielle Marie Ange Champion (25 June 1931 – 16 March 2022), better known as Jeanne Champion was a French painter and historical novelist.

Biography Jeanne Champion, born in a peasant environment near Lons-le-Saunier, was largely self-taught. An artist-painter from 1956, she produced many works in her two fields of activity. In painting, often unsatisfied, she destroyed many of her creations but she left some 200 paintings and a good number of engravings.

Champion died on 16 March 2022, at the age of 90.

Honours A writer from 1961, Champion was awarded the Prix Goncourt de la biographie in 1984 for her fictionalized biography of Suzanne Valadon, translated into several languages.

Champion was also given the Grand Prix du roman de la Société des gens de lettres (1980) for her novel Les frères Montaurian, the Prix de l'Événement du jeudi (1986) for le Bunker and the Prix des écrivains croyants (1990) for her documentary book Mémoires en exil.

In 1982, she was awarded the Prix Alice-Louis Bartoux of the Académie française.

Champion was elevated to the rank of officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001.

Works Literature 1967: Le Cri, novel, Éditions Julliard. 1968: Les Miroirs jumeaux, novel, Julliard. 1969: X., novel, Bourgois. 1969: Les Enfants des Roumis, éd. d'Halluin et Cie 1973: Vautour-en-Privilège, novel, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1974: Ma Fille Marie-Hélène Charles Quint, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1975: Dans les jardins d'Esther, novel, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1977: Les Gisants ed. Calmann-Lévy 1979: Les frères Montaurian, novel, Éditions Grasset 1981: La Passion selon Martial Montaurian, novel, éd. Grasset 1982: L'Amour capital, novel, Calmann-Lévy 1984: Suzanne Valadon, fictionalized biography, Presses de la Renaissance 1985: Le Bunker, Calmann-Lévy 1986: Bette Davis, Lherminier. 1987: La Hurlevent, fictionalized biography, Presses de la Renaissance. 1989: Memoires en exil, documentary, Fayard. 1996: La Maison Germanicus, Grasset. 1999: L'Amour à perpétuité, novel, Grasset. 2001: Lambeaux de mémoire : Enfance, éd. Plon 2002: J'hallucine, éd. Mille et une nuits. 2004: Autoportrait d'une charogne: Lambeaux de mémoire II, éd. Plon 2005: Le terrible, fictionalized biography of Ivan the Terrible, éd. Fayard 2006: Le Fils du silence, éd. Fayard. 2007: Ils ne savent plus dire "Je t'aime", éd. Fayard 2008: L'ombre de Judas, éd. Fayard 2009: Là où tu n'es plus, novel, éd. Fayard 2011: Le prince de la mélancolie, novel Charles d'Orléans, éd. Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Éditions

Painting 2002: Idoles, suivi de Avant-dernière toiles (with Yann Queffélec), Cercle d'Art.

Selected Artworks 1959: Le Beau Militaire, oil on canvas 1969: Paysage, oil on canvas 1970: Portrait d'Apollinaire, mixed media on paper 1977: Le Museo Imaginaire, pastel on paper 1984: Durer au Pays, pastel on paper 1988: The Dream of a Virgin, painting 2002: Idoles, suivi de Avant-dernière toiles (with Yann Queffélec), Cercle d'Art.

Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions 1963: Galerie Suzanne de Coninck, Paris 1964: Musée des Arts décoratifs de Saint-Étienne 1966 & 1978: Galerie Karl Flinker, Paris 1967: Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris 1974: UNESCO, Paris 1976: Salon des Femmes Peintres, Paris 1981: Dessins d'Écrivains, Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg), Paris 2011: L'avant-dernière, La Bellevilloise, Paris