Louis Cabié (1853-1939) Winter Valley In Saint Circq Du Bugue Périgord Dordogne

Louis-Alexandre CABIÉ
(Dol-de-Bretagne 1853 - Bordeaux 1939)
Winter valley at Saint Circq du Bugue
Oil on canvas
H. 150 cm; L. 200 cm
Signed lower left, dated 1918

Louis Cabié, renowned artist in France and particularly in the Bordeaux region, even during his lifetime, traveled in the great southwest throughout his life. Pupil of Harpignies whose passion for vegetation is found in the style of the Barbizon school, he will transcribe until his death the simplicity of the picturesque French landscapes. Spectacular trees, forest atmospheres, places steeped in history, bewitching valleys, or even a landscape in its simplest form that it will know how to raise with a vital contrast.

Around the 1900s, as an occasional neighbour, Cabié went to the small town of Saint Circq du Bugue, where he produced many views of the church and the houses leaning against the hill. Very often sunny landscapes concentrating on a corner of a valley or opening onto the Vézère valley and the wooded hills on the opposite bank. This village located a few kilometers from Les Eyzies conceals many sympathetic points of view that Louis Cabié knew how to put on his canvases and his papers.

Our landscape is made on the side of the village, towards Les Eyzies, the Vézère being at the bottom of the composition, at the foot of the hills. This misty valley of a very large format, the most imposing currently known to Cabié, is a piece of poetry in itself. This light-toned oil is a little Périgord jewel made at the end of autumn 1918.