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Modern paintings, Breton schools (Second Vacation)

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Lot 271 - Albert CLOUARD (1866-1952) The mermaids Circa 1905 / 1906 Oil on canvas, signed lower right 81 x 65 cm EXHIBITIONS : Paris, Salon des Indépendants, 1906 Sale Atelier Albert Clouard. Rennes, December 9, 1990, catalog no. 19. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Bruno Belleil, Albert Clouard, Les derniers feux du symbolisme en Bretagne, Rennes, Ouest-France, 1992, reproduction page 99. PROVENANCE : Private Collection "We remember the sale of the Albert Clouard (1866-1952) studio in Rennes in 1990, when we discovered the existence of this virtually unknown painter nicknamed by Maurice Denis "the clandestine nabi", and a body of work remarkable for its Breton sources of inspiration and technique, placing him between the symbolists and the nabis. A lawyer from Rennes who became a poet and literary critic, Clouard frequented Symbolist and Bretonist circles in Paris. He had been drawing since he was a teenager, and began painting as a self-taught artist. In Perros-Guirec, where he made his home, he met Maurice Denis in 1897, who became his greatest friend. Through Denis, he met and became close to Paul Sérusier. Both encouraged him to paint and to make his work known, even though he had no ambition and tended to live as a recluse. Clouard found the landscapes of Perros-Guirec and the surrounding area the ideal backdrop for a host of themes, ranging from the legendary to everyday life. Having rented a cottage on the port of Ploumanach in 1903, he was familiar with the site of the Squevel rock, one of the jewels in the crown of the pink granite coast. He used it for various evocations, such as a bathing scene, a "Virgin of the Shores", mermaids trying to attract sailors, or landscapes. These surprisingly shaped rocks provide an unusual backdrop for a bathing scene in which the painter lines up seven naked women playing in the sea or standing on the rocks (Les Baigneuses, private collection). Clouard takes up the theme and site for a depiction of mermaids. He modifies the composition, placing himself above the rocks and waves and concentrating on the cove. This allows him to eliminate the horizon and sky and use the rocky masses above and below as a backdrop. A boat under sail at top left rounds the rocky headland to answer the calls of a naiad who has launched herself into the waves and is beckoning to the sailors. On either side of the cove, two groups of two naked women, bathers, observe the scene and converse. This may suggest that Clouard wanted to invert the traditional myth. The mermaid doesn't lure sailors to their doom, but rather saves them from the evils of civilization. The cove and the women symbolize a paradise on earth. But this theme is also a pretext for the nudes in the foreground, reminiscent of Maurice Denis. This first group also enables him to guide the viewer's gaze along a diagonal from bottom right to top left. The simplified rock masses are painted in an almost uniform pattern of small patches, with no volume or shadow effects. The rendering of the water in the foreground is reminiscent of the art of Japanese wood engravers, with its juxtaposition of colored patches encircled by the white of foam. With subtlety, Clouard uses the pink reflections of the rocks in the sea to link the different parts of his composition. We know of a small preparatory study, 34.5 by 25 cm (sale Rennes, Bretagne enchères, December 7, 2009, lot 117). The comparison shows how much work Clouard put into fine-tuning his composition, in particular the layout of the large diagonal, which corresponds plastically to the symbolic theme of call and attraction. Since the work's discovery in 1990, Bruno Belleil's book has shed light on the rich, singular personality of Albert Clouard, a talented "fellow traveler" of the Nabis, as this painting shows." André Cariou

Estim. 30 000 - 50 000 EUR

Lot 278 - Henry MORET (1856-1913) L'Averse, Brittany coast, 1902 Oil on canvas, signed lower left Exhibition label on reverse 65 x 92 cm PROVENANCE : Finistère private collection (Estate) EXHIBITIONS : 1966, Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, January 5 - 29, 1966, Henry Moret, no. 28. 1994, Paris, Galerie l'Ergastère, May 6 - July 13, 1994, Henry Moret, page 26, reproduction page 27. 2021, Quimper, musée des beaux-arts, June 24 - October 4, 2021, Henry Moret 1856-1913, De Pont-Aven à l'impressionnisme en Bretagne, no. 65 reproduction page 133. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Jean-Yves Rolland and Marie-Bénédicte Baranger, Henry Moret, Plomelin, Éditions Palantines, 2002, reproduction page 96. "The work of Henry Moret (1850-1913), a major painter of the Pont-Aven School, is now well known. But his life as an artist remains something of a mystery. He was a solitary master of his time. So when Wladislaw Slewinski organized a dinner to celebrate Paul Gauguin's return to Le Pouldu in 1894, Moret declined the invitation and preferred to go and work in Groix. His life as a landscape artist, constantly on the move from Houat to Ouessant, remains astonishing. In 1894, he chose Doëlan as his home port, more lively than Le Pouldu, and returned there after his long peregrinations to paint in his studio the drawings and gouaches he had taken on the spot. This gave him a certain stability, and came at a time when the famous Durand-Ruel gallery, from the heroic days of Impressionism, decided to buy his paintings and showcase his work in exhibitions. At the age of 44, Moret was able to lead a life that suited him: Doëlan was also, and perhaps above all, about hunting, fishing and playing cards in the bistro with his local friends. We know almost nothing about his itinerant life and the choices he made over the years, which led him to spend one month in Ouessant and the next in Douarnenez or Groix. He knows the Breton coasts inside out, and perhaps chooses according to the seasons and activities, such as seaweed burning. It also depends on the availability of accommodation and local contacts. So there are "privileged" places where he comes and goes to work. Raguénez en Névez has been one of them, at least since 1896. The site, close to Port-Manech, is easily accessible by boat from Doëlan, avoiding the long detour to Pont-Aven. Painting from the island of Raguénez is interesting for the painter because there's the island in the foreground, then the sea and finally the nearby coast in the background. L'averse, côte de Bretagne is part of a series of four paintings showing the house of the Marrec family, the island's farmers. Moret may well have stayed at this farm, for in his paintings he depicts the house from different angles, and it becomes the major element of the composition. And he seems familiar with the people, as evidenced by the subjects of two paintings. In L'averse côte de Bretagne, we see a man and two women, one with a red headdress, the other white, observing the state of the sea and a heavy shower in the sky. The fisherman is waiting for the weather to calm and has temporarily abandoned his two traps, oars and rigging, waiting to join his dinghy in the shelter below to go fishing. These three people, the man and the two women in different-colored headdresses, can be seen again in another painting, Gros temps à Raguénez (Sotheby's sale, London, June 29, 1994, lot 148), where they are closely observing the crashing waves, no doubt awaiting the arrival of the wreck's seaweed. In contrast to the painting L'Île de Raguénez, Bretagne (Washington, National Gallery of Art), where the house is shown in bright sunshine with a calm sea in an almost idyllic setting, Moret expresses great tension in L'averse côte de Bretagne, symbolically conveying the people's expectation of the violence of the elements. The canvas's foreground is built on a relationship between a strong green and a pink. This has characterized Moret's art ever since he adopted the principles of pontavenian synthetism through contact with Gauguin. The strong lines of the ground in the middle left and of the house fix the viewer's gaze. The whole of the upper part and towards the right are painted differently to convey ephemeral atmospheric effects. Painting rain or a downpour is undoubtedly one of the most difficult things a landscape artist can do. Such a scene and such a landscape may seem simple at first glance, but as the viewer observes, it becomes clear how Moret skilfully plays with a few elements to guide the eye, such as the piles of seaweed in the middle of the picture.

Estim. 80 000 - 120 000 EUR

Lot 281 - Henry MORET (1856-1913) Two Breton Women on the Cliffs at Moëlan (circa 1898) Oil on canvas, signed lower left 53.5 x 65 cm A certificate of authenticity from Mr. Jean-Yves Rolland will be given to the buyer. The work will be included in the artist's catalog raisonné currently in preparation. PROVENANCE : Private collection, acquired in 2019 from Doyle Auctions, New York EXHIBITIONS : - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper "Henry Moret 1856-1913: De Pont-Aven à l'impressionnisme en Bretagne", from June 24 to October 4, 2021: our painting is illustrated on page 121 and on the 4th cover of the exhibition catalog At the end of the 19th century, Moret's painting flourished, resulting in the creation of a small number of masterpieces that exerted an unrivalled fascination. This radiant canvas perfectly illustrates the subtle balance the painter had achieved between the synthesizing experience of the Pont-Aven school and the sensory research of the great Impressionist artists. The firmness of the composition, with its well-timed spread of color, is modulated by the brushwork that swirls across the entire surface. From the foreground lit by orange-green grass to the dew of the cliffs, the painter plays with the vertigo of color, culminating in the deep blues of the ocean or the softer blues of the sky. The brushstrokes, fragmented and sometimes juxtaposed in batônets, exalt the pleasure of sensation: Moret's virtuosity invites us to feel the gentle rustle of the wind as it caresses this sun-drenched coastline. Slightly off-center, two young peasant women seem absorbed in their sewing. This motif cleverly revives memories of Paul Gauguin, whose numerous Breton examples combine domestic activities with flamboyant landscapes. It adds much to the charm of this luminous work, humanizing a harsh nature. As a leading artist, Henry Moret dominated the post-Gauguin world, infusing his Breton paintings with the visual energy of the great Impressionists (Monet, Pissarro, etc.) while asserting a search for formal firmness inherited from the Pont-Aven school.

Estim. 80 000 - 100 000 EUR

Lot 301 - Ferdinand Loyen DU PUIGAUDEAU (1864-1930) Fête foraine à Pont-Aven" (1900) Oil on canvas signed and dated lower left 50 x 65 cm Provenance : - Private collection, France, acquired in 1997 from Sotheby's New York - Hilde Gerst Collection, New York, acquired 2007 from Christie's New York - Private collection, France, acquired in 2012 in the United States - Private collection, Bretagne, since then Exhibition: - "Les peintres de Pont-Aven autour de Gauguin", Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, January 12 to April 8, 2013, illustrated on page 71 of the exhibition catalog Among the artists who forged the reputation of the Pont-Aven School, Fernand Loyen du Puigaudeau occupies an original and precious place, that of a painter who brought the lessons of luminism to their apogee. A close friend of Paul Gauguin since 1886, he was approached to accompany him and Charles Laval to Panama in 1887, but was unable to leave due to military service obligations. Still close to Gauguin at the time of the invention of Synthétisme in 1888, Puigaudeau was able to free himself from his influence and develop an independent vision, deepening a very sure taste for the chromatic effects of the solar spectrum. Several important stays in Pont-Aven, notably between 1895 and 1898, enabled him to take an interest in the festive gatherings that animated the town. Puigaudeau's depiction of funfairs, with their merry-go-rounds and magic lanterns, was an ode to the jubilation that gripped some of the town's inhabitants. In this large-scale composition, the painter sublimates the joyful bustle of the square, infusing it with a perfectly attuned chromatic vibrancy. The extraordinarily mobile brushstrokes seem to sway between Impressionism and Divisionism, while highlighting the brilliance of the headdresses, foliage and large-scale merry-go-rounds. Light is omnipresent, spreading over the entire surface of the canvas, and finds a magnificent application in the treatment of the clay floor, dominated by yellow-orange hues studded with white or blue patches. Edgar Degas had already recognized the painter's originality in 1897, when he bought a work with a festive Breton theme, a firework display. A few years later, Puigaudeau completed this Breton cycle by painting one of his masterpieces.

Estim. 20 000 - 30 000 EUR