"Paul FAUGAS (1840-1905). Painter drawing and woman with par - Lot 34

"Paul FAUGAS (1840-1905). Painter drawing and woman with parasol in the forest of Fontainebleau. Oil on canvas signed and dated 1866 lower right. 77 x 65 cm. Expert : Expertises Tellier, Paris / Marc-Henri TELLIER, CEFA member "Paul Félix Faugas was born into a wealthy family in Troyes on July 29, 1840. His father, Joseph Laurent Faugas, aged thirty-two, was a registrar. His mother, Eléonore Marie Félicité Mitantier, had no profession and was twenty-six when their son Paul was born. He was a pupil of Auguste Anastasi (1820-1899), a landscape painter from the Barbizon School whose masters included Delacroix, Corot and Delaroche. After serious studies, Faugas joined the Administration de l'Enregistrement at the age of twenty-one. In this, he followed in his father's footsteps. His parents had probably advised him to have a secure job alongside his painting. In 1871, he arrived in Louviers (Eure) as a registrar. Appointed sub-inspector on December 28, 1872, he rose through the ranks to become the town's mortgage registrar in 1893. A musician who played the cello, in 1891 he co-founded the Société Philharmonique de Louviers, of which he was vice-president, its president being Léon Poussin. A member of the Société d'études diverses de l'arrondissement de Louviers since its foundation in 1892, he played an active role in local cultural life. From 1892 to his death in 1905, he developed a passion for photography, using the first Kodak film camera, invented in 1888. He took a large number of photographs, focusing on the town of Louviers and the surrounding area. His subjects were varied: landscapes, fairgoers, washerwomen, animals, especially cows. Most of his photographs are held by the Musée de Louviers and the Photo-club de la Ville. The artist, single and childless, died in Louviers on April 11, 1905 at the age of sixty-four. Among the many personalities attending his funeral was the painter Emile Louis Minet (1841-1923), future Curator of the Musée de Rouen. Our painting, from a private collection, is a new discovery in Paul Faugas' pictorial work. While his photographs are well known, and only recently so, his paintings are virtually unknown. Unpublished, this early work, done at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six, clearly predates the artist's two other known oil paintings. One of these belongs to the Musée de Louviers. It is Sunset in Autumn, an oil on canvas dated 1903 (43 x 61 cm). The other is in a private collection and is entitled La mare aux biches, forêt de Beaumont-le-Roger. It is an oil on panel, dated September 1880, measuring 16 x 21 cm. As for works on paper, the Musée de Louviers owns a pastel entitled Le jour de la Confirmation, dated 1901 (39 x 43 cm). Two watercolors are mentioned: one from 1900 depicts fishermen on the banks of the Seine at Surville (location unknown); the other, La charité de Louviers, is cited in the 1905 bulletin of the Société d'études diverses de l'arrondissement de Louviers. The subject of our painting is probably the forest of Fontainebleau, perhaps the Trois Pignons massif. Unfortunately, we have no absolute certainty as to the location of this scene. In the left foreground, at the edge of a pond and at the foot of trees with twisted trunks, a painter is drawing on the motif. Her hat is on the ground. Near her, a woman wearing a crinoline dress shelters from the sun under an umbrella. On the opposite side of the room, rocks are visible. In the center of the composition, a cowherd, three in number, walks along a path. In the background, a landscape of hills. The slightly cloudy sky covers the upper half of the canvas. Here, Faugas respects a rule of academic painting. The relatively restrained chromaticism is limited to brown, green, blue, white and violet. Note the touch of red on the upper garment of the woman painter drawing on the motif. Bibliography : Annales de l'Enregistrement et des domaines, bulletin n° 21 du 25 mai 1905, Evreux, Imp. René Bauche, 1905, pp. 253-255 Bulletin de la Société d'études diverses de l'arrondissement de Louviers, tome IX, année 1905, Louviers, Imprimerie Eugène Izambert, 1906, p. 5 and p. 73 Bulletin de la Société des Amis des Arts du département de l'Eure, bulletin XXI, année 1905, Evreux, Imp. Charles Hérissey, 1906, pp. 11-12 Natier Michel, Rouillé André, Paul Fauga