Olivier Debré (French, 1920-1999) "Grey Sognefjord, Laerdal", 1979 Canvas. Signed, titled and dated on the back. Height 100 Width 100 cm. Provenance : Parisian collection. Olivier Debré, 1979. A painting entitled "Sognefjord gris, Laerdal" ("Grey Sognefjord, Laerdal"). Exhibition: "Olivier Debré: retrospective 1943-1993 - Les carnets de voyage, la couleur", Ajaccio, Musée Fesch, June 19-August 31, 1993. Certificate of authenticity by Mme Sylvie Huerre-Debré, daughter of the artist. "I leave, I move forward, and I tell myself I'm going to paint there", confides Olivier Debré. The world offers the artist an immense open-air studio. Norway was one of his favorite destinations, which he explored between 1966 and 1998. There, in 1971, he began painting in an aesthetic vocabulary in which the sign no longer has a place. Our canvas was painted in 1979. On this trip, Debré was welcomed by shipowner H.R. Astrup in Laerdal, who opened the doors of his property, "Lysne", to him. For days on end, the artist painted on the motif, playing with shades of blue-grey and the subtleties of the material evoked by the Sognefjord. Thick at the top, the oil is of infinite purity on the rest of the surface, disturbed only by deliberately applied drips.