Vaclav RADIMSKY (1867-1946). View of Saint-Etienne-sous-Bailleul... - Lot 82 - Les Andelys Enchères

Vaclav RADIMSKY (1867-1946). View of Saint-Etienne-sous-Bailleul near Giverny, 1911. Oil on canvas signed and dated lower right. 54 x 73 cm. Expert : SASU Expertises Tellier, Paris / Marc-Henri TELLIER Biography: In 1889, hundreds of artists frequented Giverny (in the Eure) while Claude Monet maintained his studio and residence there at the height of the Impressionist period. Some were good friends of the famous painter. Others hope to meet him and perhaps learn from him while being inspired by the landscapes of the region. If history remembers the arrival of American painters in Giverny in 1886, it often forgets that among these turbulent young people was the Czech artist Václav Radimsky (1867 - 1946), born in the town of Kolin, on the Elbe, in central Bohemia. This artist left a wealthy family (his father had an enviable position) in Bohemia at an early age to study art in Vienna, Munich and finally in France, where he continued his work at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There, he was most likely helped by the Czech painter Zdenka Braunerova who introduced him to many young French painters. In 1887, he went to Giverny where he met American painters and Claude Monet. As a pianist, he was one of the hosts of some of the evenings of the painters who were always ready to party. Radimsky was also introduced to the village of Barbizon where he became a close friend of Paul Cézanne and met the other leaders of Impressionism. Some experts speculate that the two men shared a studio in Paris and that it was Cézanne who introduced Radimsky to his friend Claude Monet. With a lively painting style thanks to a rich and luminous palette, Radimsky was quickly recognized in France and won a gold medal in Rouen in 1895 and at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. He exhibited at the Paris Salon and throughout Europe, often returning to visit his family and exhibit paintings in Bohemia. Radimsky lived in France for 28 years, settling with his French wife, Louise Fromont (a dandelion researcher and model for the painters on Giverny), near Giverny in the hamlet of Le Goulet, where he bought an old mill, called "La Bergamote" and set up his house and studio on the Seine. Like his friend Monet, he also had a "floating studio" built so that he could paint on the river, which he particularly liked. Arrested after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 as a citizen of an enemy country and put in a French prison, he was released thanks to the intervention of influential friends, including Georges Clemenceau, politician and collector of Impressionism, and in particular of his works. Disillusioned by this attitude, he left France and returned to Bohemia, to Kolin, to paint the Elbe Valley for the rest of his life. The painting, done in the vicinity of Gaillon, could have been painted more precisely in Saint-Etienne de Bailleul with as its central point a building called "Gîte des Grandes Vignes" located less than 2 km from his home in the hamlet of Goulet in a hilly area resembling the Jura in the spring. It was found very recently behind a wall built in an attic, probably during the Second World War, in order to shelter the goods of the family living there. Forgotten since then, it was recently found during work and offered for sale in the state in which it remained for nearly 80 years. Václav Radimsky, životopis. Václav Radimsky (1867- 1946), sa narodil v meste Kolin, nad Labem (Stredné Čechy). V roku 1887 sa usadil v Giverny, kde sa stýkal s americkými maliarmi, ktorí tam uz žili od roku 1886 a zoznámil sa so slávnym impresionistom Claude Monet. On sám uznávaný umelec, maliár a hudobník, je ocenený v roku 1895 zlatou medajlou mesta Rouen a na Svetovej výstave v Paríži v 1900. Vystavuje v Parížskom Salóne a tiež v celej Europe. So svojou francúzskou manželkou Louise Fromont (rolníčka a tiež modelom pre maliárov, tvoriácich v Giverny), usadili sa v osade Goulet (Eure), kde si kúpili starý mlyn "La Bergamotte". Ako jeho priateľ Monet, dal si urobit "plavebný atelier", aby mohol mal'ovat' priámo na rieke. Hned' na začiatku Prvej Svetovej Vojny, v 1914 je zatknutý ako prislušník nepriatel'ského šátatu a je uväznený vo francúzskej väznici. Je prepustený len vd'aka zásahu jeho vplyvných priatel'ov, medzi ktorými Georges Clemenceau, politická osobnosť a tiež milovník jeho diel. Po tejto trpkej skúsenosti, opúšťa Francúzsko, kde prežil 28 rokov a vracia sa do Čiech, do Kolina, kde pokračuje malovať údolia rieky Labe, až do konca svojho