Collection Wolfers & Petrucci: Hidden Treasures

Jef Codron
Portrait of Marcel Wolfers, 1908
Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 55 × 39 cm (day measure)
Signed: “Jef Codron 08” bottom right
Dedicated: “à mon ami Wolfers” bottom right
Provenance:
Marcel Wolfers and Clairette Petrucci collection (acquired from or given by the artist)
Jef Codron was born in 1882. He participated in the preliminary tests for the
Rome Prize contest of 1904 and 1907 as a painter. Maybe this was how he met
Marcel Wolfers. Another possible meeting place would have been the informal
gatherings of artists at the so-called Patte au Dindon Academy. Codron was and is
mainly know as an etcher and illustrator. His drawings are difficult to find, and on
the whole represent landscapes. A portrait by Codron is unusual.
Marcel Wolfers is depicted with a sun cap and an wearing an apron over his
clothes, so probably Codron drew Marcel when he was working at a drawing.
The sun cap could indicate that he was working outside. The drawing is prolific,
but has become somewhat more difficult to read, as the colour of the paper has
darkened through time.
The portrait was the only work by Jef Codron in the collection of Marcel
Wolfers and Clairette Petrucci. It shows Marcel Wolfers at the age of 22 and so
one of the earliest depictions of the young artist.
208