His landscapes and seascapes feel simultaneously alive and deeply still — luminous surfaces where the movement of clouds and water become the composition.
A self-described Post-Impressionist, Petit built a body of work defined by luminosity and chromatic vitality.
Jacques Petit was a French painter and printmaker whose long career placed him at the center of postwar Parisian artistic life. He trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs before, with the encouragement of the renowned art critic Georges Besson, embarking on an exhibition career that would reach collectors across Europe, North America, and Japan. During his years in Paris he befriended fellow painters Paul Collomb and Albert Zavaro, and became associated with the New School of Paris — the vital postwar circle that sought to carry the French painterly tradition into the modern era.
A self-described Post-Impressionist, Petit built a body of work defined by luminosity and chromatic vitality. His landscapes and seascapes are composed around curving, exuberant lines, with the movement of clouds and the reflective quality of water lending rhythm and structure to surfaces that feel simultaneously alive and deeply still. His work is held in permanent museum collections in Paris and at the Art Institute of Chicago.
T. Botero Galleries holds original works by Petit available exclusively to the trade.