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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
Childhood Balet was son of German/Dutch parents. 1916 after the divorce of his parents he and his mother moved to Langenargen at lake constance in Germany to his mother's parents. His grandfather was the senior judicial counsellor Eduard Eggert, his uncle was the famous painter and illustrator Benno Eggert. At that time many well-known personalities kept company in the house of his grandfather, f.e. the painters Hans Purrmann, Karl Caspar, Maria Caspar-Filser (cousin of his mother), the writer Martin Andersen Nexø, the Swabian poet Wilhelm Schussen as well as the poet and writer Oskar Wöhrle, Balets godfather. 1920 his grandfather sold the house in Langenargen and they moved to Friedrichshafen at lake constance.
1920 Balet started school. After the death of his grandfather 1926 Balet was sent to the public school Schule Schloss Salem (Germany), because his mother and his grandmother had difficulties bringing him up. The stay at public school did not last long. 1927 as a 14-year old they sent him to Munich to the Hansa home, a strictly catholic house. There he visited grammar school. Balet left school before finishing the sixth class, in order to make an apprenticeship in a painter's shop. He cut the apprenticeship short, before the 2nd year terminated. Studies 1929 at the age of 17 he moved to Berlin on invitation of his father and studied at the college of arts to learn drawing. 1930 he moved back to his mother and his grandmother, which had moved to Munich in the meantime. After he got sacked from the college of arts in Munich 1932 he was accommodated in the private school of professor Ege, a school for commercial art. Beside that Balet worked in an institute for lithography and for the art gallery Wallach. With 19 years Balet rented his first small studio, where he manufactured hand colored Bavarian woodcuts for Dirndl and successfully sold them. 1934 he passed the entrance examination on the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München and learned to draw from Olaf Gulbransson. Emigration to the USA 1938 he was recruited by the German military. Since his ancestor passport was not complete, he was not allowed to visit the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München any more. 1938 Balet emigrated to the USA, settled in New York and painted rustic furniture for a living. One winter he jobbed as a skiing teacher in Vermont and occasionally he jobbed as an advertising commercial artist. Among other things he painted the cafeteria of the largest of New Yorks department stores R.H. Macy. He married the young Irishwoman Bertha Quinn. 1940 his son Peter was born. From time to time Balet made designs for the fashion magazine Mademoiselle and there 1943 he succeeded the art director. An agent got Balet so many contracts as an advertising commercial artist that he gave up his employment and started his own business. He worked on behalf the radio station CBS, for magazines such as Vogue, House and Garden, House Beautiful, The Saturday Evening Post, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, This week and many others. As the war in Europe came to an end 1945 he acquired the U.S. American nationality. His son was 5 when his wife moved to her parents with the boy and Balet and his Mrs. Bertha Quinn got divorced. Balet commuted between his studio in New York and an old, boat house in the dunes of Montauk, Long Island, which he had converted to a studio. He painted and drew. At that time he also made his first children book Amos and the moon, which appeared 1948. When travelling to Europe became possible again after the war, Balet visited his mother and his grandmother in Munich for the first since his emigration and afterwards he spent two months in Paris. His stay in Paris was very much inspiring for his future work. 1949 his grandmother died at the age of 93 years. His grandmother was (by his own account) "the most important and dearest person" in his life. At this time he got together with the American photo model Lisa Tallal, which he persuaded to study medicine. Balet sold his boat house and found his dream house, an old farmhouse in Brookville (New York), likewise on Long Island however more closely to New York. Lisa and him married after a few years. Balet barely did any paintings any more, because he had to paint commercial art, as the lifestyle of his wife was very exclusive. On his journeys to Europe and Mexico Balet photographed a lot, since there was not sufficient time for drawing. Balet painted his own style, although at that time in America Abstract, Op-art and Popart were in demand. 1963 his mother died and he inherited the house in Munich. 1964 he, as a former pupil of Olaf Gulbransson, was invited of the city of Munich, to make an exhibition in the Pavillon Alter Botanischer Garten Stachus. A part of this exhibition consisted of children's books and illustrations, the other part of commercial graphics. after good critics in the press the pictures were sold completely. This encouraged Balet to keep on painting in his special style. Return to Europe 1966 Balet got divorced from his wife Lisa and he returned to Munich. He started to make children's books again and he painted his impressions of his journeys. He arranged his own exhibition in Munich and sold his pictures. 1973 he settled with Claudia, which was actually called Gerda C. Foth, to La Landelle in France, very close to Paris. He now lived in the country, the area which had always inspired him at the most. He had increasing success with painting and didn't need to produce commercial art any more. 1976 Balet received the order of an art dealer to make a certain annual number of lithographs in Switzerland. The art dealer Circle Fine Art arranged several exhibitions of these lithographs in different countries, first in the context of a large art exhibition in Paris. 1978 Claudia and Balet moved to Estavayer le Lac on Neuenburger Lake in Switzerlandus, in order not having to drive so far to Zurich to do his lithograph work. Coincidentally his ancestors on the paternal side originated from the area, from Grimisuat in Valais. There the half of the people are named Balet. Art work Own publications (Children books and sketch books)
1945 Alarcon, P.A.: Tales from the Spanish, Allentown
1947 Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of New York
1964 München, Pavillon Alter Botanischer Garten Balet’s works are in permanent museum collections in Europe, including the Stadt Museum in Munich, the Regierungspräsidium in Tübingen, the Kunsthalle in Bremen and the Langenargen Museum at lake constance. Literature R. Zuck, Naive Malerei, M./W. 1974 External links Illustrations by Jan Balet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/sets/1477407/ Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/ ", Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ==--==--==
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