Jean-Francis AUBURTIN (1866-1930). Evening... - Lot 146 - Les Andelys Enchères

Jean-Francis AUBURTIN (1866-1930). Evening or large landscape at Goulphar (Belle-Ile). Project for the decor of the Council of State in Paris. Oil on canvas monogrammed lower left. 77 x 175 cm. Exhibition: Galerie Doyen in Vannes. Reference work: Belle-Ile landscape kept at the Fine Arts Museum of Morlaix, currently on loan to the Museum of Lodève. Provenance: the artist's family, by descent. When war broke out in 1914, AUBURTIN had obtained a choice state commission: the staircase of honour of the Conseil d'Etat in Paris. He then embarked on a series of unfinished projects: a large composition to the glory of the Allies and a Perseus and Andromeda. Indeed, his hopes were disappointed as the architect changed his mind. Finally, AUBURTIN obtained another commission in 1916: the decoration of the Salle des Colonnes or Red Salon. For this occasion, Auburtin returned to his favourite pastorals with nymphs, shepherds and goatherds. In the painting L'idylle, conceived for this same setting, the theme of the dance with the goat evokes Ker-Xavier ROUSSEL, even if the two artists differ in their respective treatment of colour. AUBURTIN, no more than Puvis de Chavannes, did not give up easel paintings. The decoration of the Salle des Colonnes was completed in 1924, when the centenary of Puvis' birth was celebrated. In 1912, the critic Louis Vauxcelles described Auburtin's technique as follows: "Auburtin uses an admirable material, nourished by sonorous impastos. He abhors canvas, a thin and flat material. He powerfully covers the canvas and thus obtains a deep, mellow, matte resonance (because of the flat areas necessary for the decoration of vast surfaces), with little variety of tones, without monochromy, all in close and fair values, and of the most perfect balance. One does not think, in front of a decorative panel of Auburtin, of the grain of the canvas. It is the wall alone, adorned and alive, which offers itself to our charmed eyes, to our conquered spirit." And the same Louis VAUXCELLES, to evoke this time the themes of the artist: "The beautiful harmonious painter of swans ... Francis Auburtin, the idealist, who knew how to put a bit of quiet joy and Hellenic dream on the walls of homes ... painter of a haughty protest, unspeakably, virtuously nostalgic ".