Jean Signovert (1919-1981): portrait of a man certainly made in charcoal on paper signed and dedicated. Dimensions 56 x 44 cmBiographyOrphan of father, the young Jean Signovert prepares a mechanic's certificate, which he obtains in 1939, while frequenting the workshop of Abel Renault who introduces him to engraving. With the Second World War, everything stopped in 1939 when he was mobilized, only to resume in 1943 when he entered the School of Fine Arts in Saint-Étienne. It was his friend Roger Chastel, whom he met in 1946, which introduced Jean Signovert to Aimé Maeght, who exhibited him immediately and permanently in his new gallery. Mastering drawing and engraving, but also with the temperament of a "joking and tender Parisian who naturally attracts friendships"[2], Signovert quickly entered the world of artists (Georges Braque, Jacques Villon, Henri Laurens, Alberto Giacometti, Nicolas de Staël, Alexander Calder, Roger Bissière, Jean Arp...) than that of writers (Francis Ponge, Pierre Reverdy, René Char...). At the same time as the Maeght Gallery formed a group of young abstract painters and sculptors whom Maeght regularly exhibited under the name of Les mains azzlees and where Jean Signovert joined Pierre Dmitrienko, Bernard Quentin, Serge Rezvani, Robert Baudinière, Raymond Mason and Jacques Lanzmann, the gallery launched a periodical review entitled Derrière le Miroir, the editor of which was then Jacques Kober and whose n°59, published in 1957, would be enriched with original lithographs by Jean Signovert. Jacques Kober, Jean Signovert and Pierre Golendorf then undertook together the creation of Éditions Réclame Paris which, although of an ephemeral life (1948-1950), published Paul Éluard, Eugène Guillevic and Aimé Césaire[3]. At the same time as creating his work, the life of Jean Signovert devoted himself, on the hand press of his studio, to printing engravings by, among others, Georges Braque[4], Jean Arp[5], Maurice Estève, Serge Poliakoff and Olivier Debré. In 1980, Jean Signovert was appointed professor at the National School of Fine Arts, a position he unfortunately did not have time to exercise, dying shortly after opening his studio. During his burial, it was his friend Jacques Busse who pronounced the eulogy of the deceased: "The professional artist whom he had at heart to show himself all his life had, for many years, to put his talent as an engraver to the service of great elders or more favored companions. Not only did he never conceive of resentment, but he always recognized with happiness that his knowledge of engraving had, on the one hand facilitated the material conditions of his life as an artist, on the other hand brought many precious friendships. »[2].