Jeanne Champion

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Jeanne Champion (born Jeannine Gabrielle Marie Ange Champion; 25 June 1931 – 16 March 2022) was a French painter and historical novelist. She grew up near Lons-le-Saunier in a peasant family and was largely self-taught.

Biography
Champion began painting in 1956 and created around 200 paintings plus many engravings, though she destroyed many works she wasn’t satisfied with. She also worked as a writer from the early 1960s, producing novels and biographical works.

Honours
She won the Prix Goncourt de la biographie in 1984 for a fictionalized biography of Suzanne Valadon. She also received the Grand Prix du roman de la Société des gens de lettres in 1980 for Les frères Montaurian, the Prix de l'Événement du jeudi in 1986 for Le Bunker, and the Prix des écrivains croyants in 1990 for Memoires en exil. In 1982 she was awarded the Prix Alice-Louis Bartoux by the Académie française, and in 2001 she was named an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Works
Literature: Le Cri (1967); Les Miroirs jumeaux (1968); X. (1969); Vautour-en-Privilège (1973); Ma Fille Marie-Hélène Charles Quint (1974); Dans les jardins d'Esther (1975); Les frères Montaurian (1979); Suzanne Valadon (1984); Le Bunker (1985); Memoires en exil (1990); La Maison Germanicus (1996); Le terrible (2005); L’ombre de Judas (2008); Le prince de la mélancolie (2011).

Painting: Idoles, suivi de Avant-dernière toiles (2002, with Yann Queffélec).

Jeanne Champion died on 16 March 2022 at the age of 90, leaving a legacy as both a prolific painter and a respected writer.