80 x 30 cm.
Acrylic, mixed media and resin on canvas. COMMISSION
"To prepare for a race there is nothing better than a good pheasant, some champagne and a woman."
Jacques Anquetil
Hidden beneath the steely, poker-face of the man nicknamed 'Monsieur Chrono' lay an entirely contrasting personality - one of driven passion and rakish libido. This alternate portrait of cyclist Jacques Anquetil forms the subject of Le Baiser de sa femme Janine (The kiss of his wife Janine).
Anquetil married Janine Boeda on 22 December 1958. She had been married before - to Anquetil's doctor, with whom she had produced two children - Alain and Annie. Through his stepson and stepdaughter, Anquetil would fashion a web of carnal complexity. When Janine failed to produce children, she surprisingly suggested her own daughter Annie as surrogate mother. "Tout le monde était à liaise," Annie said of the arrangement at a later date - "Everybody was comfortable with it." And so, herself already infatuated with the charismatic Anquetil, a decade-long ménage à trois began.
This would produce a daughter, Sophie, who kept the identity of her father secret, until 2004, with the publication of her book 'Pour l'amour de Jacques'. Not content with one love triangle, Anquetil would also begin a relationship with Dominique - the wife of Janine's son Alain.
All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2024.