Raymond Renefer

{{Infobox person

| name = Raymond Renefer

| image = Raymond Renefer Self-portrait.jpg

| alt = Self-portrait of Raymond Renefer

| caption = Self-portrait of Raymond Renefer

| birth_name = Jean-Constant-Raymond Fontanet

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1879|06|02}}

| birth_place = Bétheny, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1957|10|14|1879|06|02}}

| death_place = Andrésy, France

| nationality = French

| other_names =

| occupation =

| years_active =

| known_for = Painting, drawing

| notable_works =

}}

Jean-Constant-Raymond Fontanet (2 June 1879 – 14 October 1957), known by his pseudonym of Raymond Renefer, was a French painter, illustrator and engraver artist.

Early life

Renefer was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris after studying architecture. Diring this time, he adapted the pseudonym Renéférant, which later he shortened to Renefer. He began to paint around

1900 and exhibited from 1910 at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. He married Yvonne Yvon in 1907.{{cite web|title=Article of la Liberté published in 1907|date = 3 February 1907|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k47958913/f2.item.r=barbusse%20renefer.zoom|access-date=2019-01-09|publication-date=}}

First World War

Renefer was conscripted during World War I in the French 1er Régiment du Génie{{refn |group=lower-alpha |1st Engineer Regiment.}} and drew schemes of battlefields, which won him the Croix de guerre in 1918.

In the meantime Renefer sketched the life on the battlefields and the devastated landscapes.

Two portfolios of 15 etchings depicting the Verdun and the Somme frontlines were created in 1916. In 1918, Renefer illustrated the first edition of the novel Le Feu by Henri Barbusse.{{cite web|title=Le Feu at auction|url=https://www.kapandji-morhange.com/lot/97978/10593858--renefer-barbusse-henri-le-feu|access-date=2023-12-01|publication-date=}}

An exhibition about this period was held at the National WWI Museum and Memorial of Kansas City in 2014–2015.{{cite web|title=WW1 Museum exhibition |date=22 October 2014|url=https://www.theworldwar.org/exhibitions/letters-artworks-war-renefer-1914-18|access-date=2024-01-01|publication-date=}}

From 1920 to 1957

Renefer created in 1922 49 etchings for Le Cabaret by Alexandre Arnoux.{{cite web|title=Le Cabaret|url=https://blog.paris-libris.com/arnoux-alexandre-illustrations-de-renefer-le-cabaret-arnoux-alexandre-illustrations-de-richard-minguet-le-cabaret-arnoux-alexandre-le-cabaret/|access-date=2019-01-09|publication-date=}} He illustrated more than a hundred novels published by Fayard.

After living in the west of Paris (7th/15th/16th districts), he bought a house at the end of the 1930s

in the small town of Andrésy 20 km west of Paris. This new home at the confluence of the Seine

and Oise rivers inspired Renefer for his waterside paintings or watercolors, most of them located in Andrésy, Paris or Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.{{cite web|title=Article of la Gerbe published in 1927|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k316531f/f7.image.r=barbusse%20renefe|access-date=2019-01-09|publication-date=}}

An exhibition was held in 1931 at the Parisian Javal et Bourdeaux gallery including 51 oil paintings{{cite web|title=Article of l'Esprit Français published in 1931|date = 6 January 1931|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5596935v/f478.image.r=barbusse%20renefer|access-date=2019-01-09|publication-date=}}

He was also from 1927 director of the art books at the book publisher Flammarion and teacher at the ABC art school in Paris from 1925 to 1957.

He died in October 1957 at the age of 78 and is buried in the new cemetery of Andrésy overlooking the river Seine.