European Art

This lot has been authenticated by Didier Imbert and will be included in the catalogue raisonné currently in preparation. It is also accompanied by a photo-certificate from Charles Durand-Ruel, signed, and dated Paris, le 25 Septembre 1970.

Provenance:

Galerie Durand-Ruel, no. 10413

Wally F. Findlay Galleries, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1971

Lot note:

Painted late in Gustave Loiseau’s career, Dordogne à Beynac, 1926, superbly illustrates the distinctly unique style the artist developed over many years of study. Considered one of the foremost post-impressionist painters, Gustave Loiseau was greatly influenced by the generation of impressionists who came before him, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. Born in Paris to parents who ran a successful butcher shop, Loiseau apprenticed under a house painter and then to a decorator, but then in 1887, he received an inheritance from his grandmother that allowed him to study art full time. He briefly attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and then studied for a short time under the landscape painter Fernand Just Quignon.

As Loiseau was mostly self-taught, he shaped his style through close observation of nature and careful scrutiny of his impressionist forebears. Like them, he was a champion of painting en plein air, yet he developed his own artistic technique that used a distinct crosshatched brushstroke, called en treillis. This method created an evanescent quality and movement to his compositions and reveals the influence of pointillism in his work. As an admirer of the younger artist’s work, Claude Monet introduced Loiseau to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who signed an exclusive contract with him two years later. The resulting financial independence allowed the artist to journey throughout France to paint various landscapes, ranging from Normandy and Brittany in the north to Dordogne, in the southwest. He is known to have made at least two trips to Dordogne, once in 1923 and the subsequent trip in 1926, when the present artwork was painted.

Here, Loiseau has taken as his subject a distant view of the village of Beynac-et-Cazenac, situated high above the banks of the river Dordogne. Along the left of the composition, narrow cliffside steps climb up to the distinct yellow stone buildings Beynac is known for. To the right of these stairs, the sense of height is strengthened by the diagonal plunge of the cliffs towards the long curve of the river as it flows into the middle distance. In the background, softly undulating mountains enclose the space of the valley. Analogous to Monet, Loiseau explored in his canvases different atmospheric conditions caused by the surrounding landscape and bodies of water. The haze of a warm day is almost palpable, created using richly pigmented brushstrokes that scintillate across the surface in a careful patchwork of greens, blues, and ochres. This work masterfully highlights Loiseau’s experimental nature and his intuitive use of both impressionist and post-impressionist techniques to capture nature as it is experienced.

Framed: 30 1/4 x 34 3/4 inches.

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