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Lot Essay
Fleury-Joseph Crépin est à bien des égards un personnage remarquable. Thérapeute de profession, sa spécialité est le traitement par radiesthésie, soignant ses patients grâce aux énergies transmises à travers son propre corps. Il prodigue une grande partie de ses soins à distance, utilisant une mèche de cheveux de son patient qu’il dépose sur un morceau de carton en forme de cœur également placé par le patient sur la partie de son corps qui le fait souffrir (Fig. 1). L'artiste confère également des vertus thérapeutiques à ses œuvres, qu’il croit être non pas le fruit de son propre esprit, mais celui de la volonté d’une force extérieure réparatrice. Convaincu de l’efficacité de ses improvisations visuelles, l’artiste cite pour preuve le nombre de maisons épargnées par la destruction lors de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale parce qu’elles possédaient en leur sein l’un de ses tableaux. En effet, la guerre elle-même prend fin précisément le jour où le peintre achève sa 300e œuvre, le 7 mai 1945, concrétisant une prophétie que lui souffla un soir une voix céleste. Malgré tout, le travail de Crépin, majoritairement composé d’œuvres schématiques sur papier quadrillé, demeure peu connu de son vivant. Ce n’est qu’en 1956, plusieurs années après sa mort, que l’artiste, exposé par André Breton à la galerie L’Étoile scellée de Paris, reçoit enfin la reconnaissance du public.
Fleury-Joseph Crépin was by any standards a remarkable character. A therapist by trade, his specialism was treatment through the use of dowsing, healing his patients with energies channeled through his own body. Much of his practice took place at a distance, using a sample of the patient’s hair which Crépin would place upon a heart-shaped piece of card which had also been placed by the patient on the part of the body which ailed (Fig. 1). Crépin’s therapies also integrated his artwork which he believed was the product not of his own design but rather of the will an exterior force possessed with restorative properties. Proof of the efficacy of these visual renderings was evident according to Crépin who cited the number of houses spared destruction during the second world war due to their having contained one of his paintings. Indeed, the war itself came to an end precisely on the day that Crépin completed his 300th painting, on the 7th May 1945, as such fulfilling a prophecy announced to the artist via an ethereal voice. Nevertheless Crépin’s work, generally characterized by schematic drawings produced on squared paper, remained little known during his lifetime, only receiving public recognition several years following his death when André Breton curated an exhibition at the gallery L’Etoile scellée in Paris in 1956.
Fleury-Joseph Crépin was by any standards a remarkable character. A therapist by trade, his specialism was treatment through the use of dowsing, healing his patients with energies channeled through his own body. Much of his practice took place at a distance, using a sample of the patient’s hair which Crépin would place upon a heart-shaped piece of card which had also been placed by the patient on the part of the body which ailed (Fig. 1). Crépin’s therapies also integrated his artwork which he believed was the product not of his own design but rather of the will an exterior force possessed with restorative properties. Proof of the efficacy of these visual renderings was evident according to Crépin who cited the number of houses spared destruction during the second world war due to their having contained one of his paintings. Indeed, the war itself came to an end precisely on the day that Crépin completed his 300th painting, on the 7th May 1945, as such fulfilling a prophecy announced to the artist via an ethereal voice. Nevertheless Crépin’s work, generally characterized by schematic drawings produced on squared paper, remained little known during his lifetime, only receiving public recognition several years following his death when André Breton curated an exhibition at the gallery L’Etoile scellée in Paris in 1956.