Jeanne Champion (born 25 June 1931, near Lons-le-Saunier) is a French painter and historical novelist.
Biography
Jeanne Champion, born in a peasant environment, is largely self-taught. An artist-painter since 1956, she has produced many works in her two fields of activity. In painting, often unsatisfied, she destroyed many of her creations but she left some 200 paintings and a good number of engravings.
Honours
A writer since 1961, Champion was awarded the Prix Goncourt de la biographie in 1984 for her fictionalized biography of Suzanne Valadon, translated into several languages.
She was also given the Grand Prix du roman de la Société des gens de lettres (1980) for her novel Les frères Montaurian, the Prix de l'Événement du jeudi (1986) for le Bunker and the Prix des écrivains croyants (1990) for her documentary book Mémoires en exil.
In 1982, she was awarded the Prix Alice-Louis Bartoux of the Académie française.
She was elevated to the rank of officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001.
Works
Literature
1967: Le Cri, novel, Éditions Julliard. 1968: Les Miroirs jumeaux, novel, Julliard. 1969: X., novel, Bourgois. 1969: Les Enfants des Roumis, éd. d'Halluin et Cie 1973: Vautour-en-Privilège, novel, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1974: Ma Fille Marie-Hélène Charles Quint, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1975: Dans les jardins d'Esther, novel, ed. Calmann-Lévy 1977: Les Gisants ed. Calmann-Lévy 1979: Les frères Montaurian, novel, Éditions Grasset 1981: La Passion selon Martial Montaurian, novel, éd. Grasset 1982: L'Amour capital, novel, Calmann-Lévy 1984: Suzanne Valadon, fictionalized biography, 1985: Le Bunker, Calmann-Lévy 1986: Bette Davis, Lherminier. 1987: La Hurlevent, fictionalized biography, Presses de la Renaissance. 1989: Memoires en exil, documentary, Fayard. 1996: La Maison Germanicus, Grasset. 1999: L'Amour à perpétuité, novel, Grasset. 2001: Lambeaux de mémoire : Enfance, éd. Plon 2002: J'hallucine, éd. Mille et une nuits. 2004: Autoportrait d'une charogne: Lambeaux de mémoire II, éd. Plon 2005: Le terrible, fictionalized biography of Ivan the Terrible, éd. Fayard 2006: Le Fils du silence, éd. Fayard. 2007: Ils ne savent plus dire "Je t'aime", éd. Fayard 2008: L'ombre de Judas, éd. Fayard 2009: Là où tu n'es plus, novel, éd. Fayard 2011: Le prince de la mélancolie, novel Charles d'Orléans, éd. Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Éditions
Painting
2002: Idoles, suivi de Avant-dernière toiles (with Yann Queffélec), Cercle d'Art.
Bibliography
Alain Bosquet, Les envoûtements de Jeanne Champion
Sarah Charlotte Rouncefield, Theme and Form in the Works of Jeanne Champion, University of Exeter, 1994