|
|
Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2010
|
|
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to present this large and truly exquisite pastel, Lavandieres, Bord de Marne, Effet du Soleil by Leon L'Hermitte, for your consideration.
A celebrated artist during his lifetime, L'Hermitte combined the enduring charms of the French rural tradition with an airy, light-filled, Impressionist sensibility. Pastel was the ideal medium for the artist to conjoin these two movements, earning him the admiration of Van Gogh and other luminaries of his day. By 1919 when Lavandieres, Bord de Marne, Effet du Soleil was executed, L'Hermitte was at the very height of his prowess with pastel chalk. This work comes to us from a private collection and is in excellent original condition
We invite your enquiries and thank you!
~ Price Available upon Request ~
Sincerely,
Joyce and Kevin Anderson
|
____________________________________________
|
LEON AUGUSTIN
L'HERMITTE
French, 1844-1925
|
Lavandieres, Bord de Marne, Effet du Soleil
(Washday on the Banks of the Marne, Sun Effects)
Pastel on paper
26 x 35 1/2 inches
Signed and dated lower left: L. Lhermitte 1919
|
____________________________________________
|
|
|
Provenance:
Allard, 6266, 1920
Wallis
H.J. Brown, Raeburn Gallery, London
Private collection, Ecosse, 1933
Murray collection
Christie's London, October 8, 1943
Lefebvre Gallery, London
Private collection, California
Exhibited:
National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1933
Literature:
Burlington Magazine, 1933
Leon Augustin Lhermitte (1844-1925),
Catalogue Raisonne,
Monique le Pelley Fonteny, 1991,
Editions Cercle d'Art, Paris,
Page 274, n. 665, (illustrated)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
__________________________________________________________________________________________
 Leon Augustin L'Hermitte's Lavandieres, Bord de Marne, Effet du Soleil is a luminous pastel, in which the artist captures a peaceful riverbank scene of laundresses at work. The subject of women laundering along a river was a popular theme for L'Hermitte and many other prominent French artists (i.e. Millet, Breton, Delpy); a common vein of dignifying and romanticizing pastoral life and the rural countryside unifies these artists' laundress scenes. The river featured here, the Marne, was a favorite subject of L'Hermitte, which he sketched on several occasions. He was drawn to its gentle waters, the local people who relied on its bounty, and to the beautiful surrounding countryside. This particular work illustrates the light and warmth of this region exquisitely, easily demonstrating why L'Hermitte found inspiration through the Marne.
Leon L'Hermitte was born in 1844 and was still executing works in the French rural tradition at his death in 1925, making him the last in an illustrious group of artists dedicated to this genre. He showed artistic talent at a young age, and in 1863 left his home at Mont-Saint-Pere, Aisne for the Petite Ecole, where he studied with Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, in Paris. Lecoq was known for his program of training the visual memory of his students, and his theories had a profound effect on L'Hermitte.
It was in his studio that L'Hermitte formed a life-long friendship with Cazin and also became  acquainted with Legros, Fantin-Latour and Rodin. L'Hermitte sent his initial entry to the Salon in 1864 at the age of 19. He continued to exhibit charcoal drawings and paintings regularly and pastels after 1885, winning his first medal in 1874 with La Moisson (Musee de Carcassonne). Other prizes and honors came to L'Hermitte throughout his long career, including the Grand Prix at the Exhibition Universelle in 1889, the Diplome d'honneur at Dresden in 1890, and the Legion d'honneur. He was a founding member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Museum Collections Include:
Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin; Goteborg Art Gallery, Sweden; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; Melton Park Gallery, Oklahoma City; Oklahoma City Art Museum, OK; Paine Art Center, Oshkosh; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Musee d'Orsay, Paris; van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia; Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, PA; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester; Museum of Fine Art, Saintes; Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio; Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Toledo Museum of Art, OH; Art Gallery, Ontario; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Denver Museum of Art, CO; Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Canada
|
____________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
