Illustrator, set designer and cartoonist

He was born in Sanremo on 24 August 1890 from Pietro Giovanni and Erminia Fornari. Better known as Jean Buttin, he descended from an ancient Sanremo family. He graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in painting and architecture and studied scenography with Rovescalli.

He then worked as a set designer in Genoa with Boccadoro and in Turin with Bini. Also in the Ligurian capital, between 1919 and 1925, he was set designer and stage director for Gilberto Govi's company, for which he also wrote the farce in one act "O giorno da prìmma comùnion".

In 1920 he tried to make a short film, although without technical means, The cure for colds, which was not as successful as he had hoped, unlike a later work entitled The frog spiteful, inspired by Al Jolson's first sound film The Jazz Singer.

In the painting field he approached the Futurist movement mainly practicing caricature with exhibitions at the Caricature and Humour Exhibition in Genoa in 1914 and in Turin in the same year, and collaborating with the well-known humorous periodical "Successo" in Genoa.
From 1961 to 1965 he took part in the Bordighera International Humour Show; he also devoted himself to an intense poster activity, also on the French market. He held numerous solo exhibitions, among which we can mention those of Sanremo (1921, 1955), Genoa (1934, 1954, 1956), Bolzano (1957) and Montecarlo (1960).

In 1953 he won a gold medal at the Painting Exhibition promoted by Shell Italiana, the following year he was awarded the Attività Liguri prize, in 1958 he was invited to the Marzotto Prize.

He also worked as an illustrator for various publishing houses, including Caroccio and Ceschina in Milan and Liguria in Genoa; he also illustrated and published various books for young and old, including Vegia Zena (1967), Veja Sanremu (1970) and Sanremo Saracen. History of Saracen Matuzia for children from eight to ninety years old  (1976), outlining with a refined pictorial and humorous touch some of the human types that have characterised Ligurian city life in past centuries.

She died in Genoa on 23 July 1981.

(Source: Vite di Sanremesi Illustri di A, Gandolfo)