Achille LAUGE (1861-1944). Genets in bloom. Pastel on canvas signed lower right. Height 34 - W 44 cm (restoration) Provenance : Former collection of the Governor of French Indochina Albert Sarraut (1911-1914; 1917-1919) then by direct descent. Achille Laugé, a native of Arzens in the Aude region, began his classical training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Toulouse in 1876, where he befriended the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. In 1882, he entered the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, first studying with Alexandre Cabanel, then Jean-Paul Laurens, and was struck by the avant-garde ideas of Picasso and Seurat. From then on, he questioned his entire apprenticeship. Returning to his native region, he settled in the small village of Cailhau, where he perfectly applied the principles of Divisionism to the broom-blossomed Aude countryside. On the bangs of modern trends, Laugé nevertheless took part in the Salon des Indépendants in 1894, alongside Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier. He was supported by galleries and friends, including the statesman Albert Sarraut, whose self-portrait he painted is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Carcassonne. The work we present here is a pastel whose technique is materialized by fine hatching, very vivid and evanescent in the memory of Divisionism. It tells several stories: first and foremost, the famous brooms near Cailhau, the painter's favorite subject and a token of his attachment to his origins. Secondly, the bond and unfailing support between him and Albert Sarraut.