Mathurin MEHEUT (Lamballe, 1882 - Paris, 1958) - Painter for the Navy in 1921. Farm work. Gouache, chalk and gold paint on black paper. Unsigned. Height: 24.8 cm. Length : 32.3 cm. Provenance: private collection, Lamballe. This preparatory study was probably made for the decor of the SFTP oil tanker "Le Beauce", launched in 1953. With the theme "Fields of wheat", it is described as follows: "The composition is simple: only two registers of color - one ochre and one blue - linked by the silhouette of a reaper and a windmill, suggest the expanse of the fields (...) the harsh tones of the azure blue being offset by the warmth of the sienna and orange-ochre wheat". (In D. Delouche, A. De Stoop and P. Le Tiec, Mathurin Méheut, Le Chasse-Marée-Ar Men, Douarnenez, 2001, p. 163).

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