1865 -1952 · Luxeuil-les-Bains, Paris and social naturalism

Worker crowds, strikes and urban poverty make Jules Adler the attentive and committed painter of those whom modernity leaves on the margins.

Jules Adler was born in Luxeuil-les-Bains in 1865 into a family of textile merchants. Based in Paris, he studied at the School of Decorative Arts, at the Académie Julian then with Tony Robert-Fleury and William Bouguereau. He also took Yvon's drawing lessons at the École des beaux-arts. From his beginnings at the Salon in 1888, he chose naturalism and observed popular Paris around his workshop on Place de la République. Admirer of Émile Zola and engaged in the Dreyfusard camp, he painted workers, miners, vagabonds and poor families without reducing them to picturesque types. The Strike at Le Creusot transformed the collective march of 1899 into an image of worker solidarity. There Soup of the Poor, painted in 1906, shows a compact line of men, women and children waiting for their ration in a night street. The dark range, tight framing and rare light make social fatigue perceptible while preserving everyone's dignity. Adler also paints popular festivals, rural life, refugees and the consequences of wars. His loyalty to the humble spans more than sixty years of career. His loyalty to the humble spans more than sixty years of career. His loyalty to the humble spans more than sixty years of career. The "Jules Adler" selection notably compares La Grève au Creusot and La Soupe des poor. Its reading favors color.

Adler does not look at the crowd from afar: he places himself at their height and makes each walk, wait or meal a collective story.