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ANDRÉ-LÉON VIVREL (1886-1976) Reunion of two paintings Paysage aux barques, 1935 - Boat taking on water Oil on canvas The first signed lower right and dated 'mars 1935' on the back, the second signed lower right (Dirt and small gaps in the paint layer and stretcher mark) A set of two paintings, oil on canvas, the first one signed lower right and dated 'mars 1935' on the reverse, the second one signed lower right 46 x 55 cm - 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in. 46 x 55 cm - 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in. Provenance Private collection, France Note "This is an acute 'eye', which translates with undeniable constructive power, and without any false note of very close tones, the hollow paths, lonely roads and wet skies of Brittany." Gérald Schurr, "Les petits maîtres de la peinture, valeur de demain", Volume 2, Paris: Les Éditions de l'Amateur, 1972, pp. 135 and 138 André-Léon Vivrel was born in Paris in 1886. At just 15, he decided to become a painter. He was supported in this by his mother, whom he describes as his first teacher, and his father, a wine merchant who won first prize for drawing in 1870. A pupil at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, André-Léon Vivrel entered the Académie Julian in 1910. There, he studied with Paul Albert Laurens, and later with Marcel Baschet and Henri Royer at the École des Beaux-Arts. He rents a studio in Montmartre, at 65 rue Caulaincourt, just eight numbers from Auguste Renoir's. He first exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1913. Mobilized in 1914, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for heroic conduct in 1917. After the war, he returned to his studio in Montmartre. He was awarded an honorable mention at the 1920 Salon, and the French government bought the two still lifes he exhibited at the Salon des indépendants. He also exhibited two portraits of Breton women painted on his return from a stay in Ploumanac'h (Côtesss d'Armor). In 1922, Vivrel appeared for the first time at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. After winning the Deldebat de Gonzalva prize in 1932, the following year he won a silver medal at the Salon des Artistes Français with "Le Temps des cerises". In 1934, Vivrel presented Bathers, the first in a series of large nudes exhibited at the Salon until 1943. The culmination of his research into the female nude, his 1939 "Baigneuses" won a gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Français. This final award crowned a silver medal won by Vivrel in 1937 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques in Paris. Critics were unanimous in their praise of his talent, and in 1940, Louis Paillard wrote on the front page of the "Petit journal" of May 6, 1940: "André Vivrel, appears, I proclaim, as one of the best in this Salon [of French artists]". The exhibition "Vivrel - peintures récentes" (Vivrel - recent paintings), organized by the Galerie de Berri in May 1942, illustrated the diversity of Vivrel's genres in 31 paintings, but it was landscape that he explored most passionately. His land of choice was the Loiret, where his older brother Marcel owned a second home in Châtillon-sur-Loire, not far from Champtoceaux. In the aftermath of the Great War, destitute of money, he took refuge there to paint on the motif at lower cost. In the spring of 1926, Vivrel was again in Brittany, from where he brought back "Port de Camaret", exhibited at the 1926 Salon des Tuileries. A few years later, in 1934, he returned to Côtes d'Armor, where he composed seascapes that were also studies of the sky. Vivrel spent the summer of 1926 in Corsica. There, he produced watercolors that were exhibited in the autumn at the Galerie Georges Petit and then in New York. On each occasion, the critics were unanimous in praising their qualities: "André Vivrel's exhibition is the work of an artist who is sensitive and refined, while remaining larggge in his conceptions. His views of Corsica, Brittany and Paris are like his delicately harmonious flowers" ("La Semaine à Paris", November 12, 1926, p. 63). In 1928, he returned to the Midi. Capturing the warm, vibrant light of Provence, he painted "Le port de Saint-Tropez", exhibited the same year at the Salon des Indépendants. The Mediterranean theme was also evident at the Salon des Tuileries, where Vivrel presented harbor views and ocean liners, evidence of a flourishing tourist industry. When Vivrel wasn't on the roads of France, he took Paris as his model. He painted the alleyways of the Montmartre hilltop and the capital's monuments, such as Notre-Dame Cathedral, which he painted in series, following Monet's example. He liked to linger on the banks of the Seine, which offered him many unusual views of the city and inspired paintings reminiscent of Albert Lebourg's Parisian landscapes. Peig
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