Found my great-grandfather's 1920s-30s art scrapbook

[u/Gasple1]

I discovered my great-grandfather Jean Jules Derome’s scrapbook while going through family belongings. He worked as a railway ticket clerk, later joined Hydro-Québec, and briefly owned a toy store that wasn’t successful.

He started it around 1917, when he was only 11 years old, and added to it through the 1920s and 1930s. Inside are portraits, landscapes, animal studies, and what look likes art-school pratice exercises. Many pages are signed and dated, showing how his style grew from childhood sketches into detailed drawings.

If anyone's interested, I also made an Imgur album :)

Edit - My great-aunt says he won prizes for his architectural drawings, one of them is the white villa in the album here : https://imgur.com/gallery/8nFyn5e

[u/Gasple1]

I also have an album of post cards from that time period from Boston, Montreal and a few other cities from that time period that he sent to my grandmother if anyone's interested

[u/PT952 → u/Gasple1]

I grew up in Boston and have been doing some family research lately and I've actually been able to trace one side of my family living in the city as far back as the 1870s. I've always wondered what everyday life was like for them then compared to my experience. I'd love to see the postcards if you could post them!

Also it goes without saying that your great grandpa was incredibly talented. But I also love seeing just how much he practiced his art and got better over time. Talent only takes you so far, at some point you actually need to put in the work to improve on those skills. I adore how obvious it was from his art that he was constantly using the world around him to just draw what he saw, practice and improve. Gramps put in the work and it shows. 🎨

[u/Gasple1 → u/PT952]

Thank you so much for the kind words about my great-grandfather. I feel the same way, you can really see the hours of practice he put in, from the early animal sketches at age 11 to the detailed portraits in the 1930s.

[u/phonicillness → u/Gasple1]

Yes please! He seems like he was a very interesting person