Lonne, Raphael

R. Lonne was born in a small town in southwestern France. At the age of 12, he quits school and earns a living as auxiliary workers. In 1937, he moved to Bordeaux and worked there as a tram conductor, concierge, and an orderly at a hospital. Later, Lonne returns to his homeland, Landes, and takes the postman's place. Here his passion for music and poetry opens, R. Lonne accompanies at local holidays, begins painting.

In 1950, R. Lonne for the first time participated in a seance, during which, having fallen into a trance, he began to draw in a completely definite manner characteristic of his subsequent work. The artist creates his works from left to right and from top to bottom, and later says that with his hand with a brush “as if someone leads”. Lonne calls his works "graphic poetry." He writes rich compositions with ink, graphite pencils, oil paints and a ballpoint pen, filled with silhouette images from human faces, animals and plants. All the pictures written by R. Lonne, the author dated. Soon the psychiatrist and surrealist poet Gaston Ferdier , who also worked with Antonin Arto, drew attention to his work. In 1963, Jean Dubuffet , one of the founders of Ar Brut , meets R. Lonné and acquires 450 of his works for his collection. Since that time, both artists are in constant contact and exchange their works. In 1971, exhibitions of works by R. Lonne in Paris, Bordeaux, Dax and Biarritz are held. In 1973, R. Lonne retired and has since lived with a Cypriot wife in a house acquired with the proceeds from the sale of his paintings. He died at an advanced age in Bordeaux.

• THE MESSAGE. Kunst und Okkultismus. Art and Occultism , Verlag Walther König, 2007, Köln ISBN 978-3-86560-342-5 .

• Three paintings by R. Lonne
• Biography and one of the pictures R. Lonne