Richard BURGSTHAL (1884-1944) Store in a souk Watercolor, signed lower right, dated 22 38.5 x 31.5 cm Provenance: Former FAYET collection, then by descent. A rare artist on the art market, the Musée d'Orsay acquired a work by him in 2015, "Paysage fantastique, cirque de montagnes avec lac" (Between 1910 and 1914). Richard Burgsthal, French musician, artist and master glassmaker. Trained as a musician and pianist, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1895. A passionate Wagnerian, he met composer Rita Strohl in 19032, author of Wagnerian-inspired operas and Celtic and Vedic legends. Both were close to the Theosophical movement. Encouraged by Rita Strohl, he took up painting, translating the visions inspired by music into large, colorful watercolors. His meeting with Gustave Fayet in 1910 at the Galerie Barbazanges in Paris, where he exhibited his work, was to prove decisive. The wealthy merchant, patron and collector hired him to decorate the Fontfroide Abbey in Narbonne and, from 1912, to create stained-glass windows.