Jean-louis Daniel (1861-1929) Edges Of Lake Dordogne Corrèze

Jean-Louis DANIEL
(Sorges 1861 - Saint Maur des Fossés 1929)
Lakeside
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
H. 21 cm; L. 25 cm
Mention of donation on the back

Provenance: Artist's studio ; Offered by Madame Daniel following the artist's death in 1929 ; Private collections, Périgueux

Raised in Sorges in the north of Périgueux in a family of wealthy farmers, Jean-Louis Daniel devotes himself to drawing from his high school in Périgueux, following the lessons of Jean-Gustave Dose. This taste for the arts will remain in place, despite a career started by the Ponts et Chaussées as an agent, then he became Director of Works of Périgueux. During these years, Daniel befriended Georges Darnet and Jean-Georges Pasquet, and together follow the courses of their common master, Dose. The latter takes them to the banks of the Isle to make picadis, or more removed views of the calm meanders of the river. From 1888, Daniel organized alongside his friends previously mentioned, as well as Bertoletti, Dose and Gérard de Fayolle, the Salon of the Société des Beaux-Arts de la Dordogne, until 1925. He obviously participated in these annual exhibitions by presenting its Perigordian landscapes, like Corrèziens. The Parisian Salon is not to be outdone since the painter exhibited there in 1908 La Combe des bois, acquired at the time by the Museum of Art and Archeology of Périgord. Daniel used the technique of Impressionism very early on and showed us as early as the 1890s, works with vivid touches and almost unreal colors. All in impasto, his compositions mainly reflect the landscapes of the region and are innovative for the time. Jean-Louis Daniel will also devote his life to the preservation of Occitan culture, through his investment in the “Bournat dau Périgord” association which organizes the Félibrée every year. He was one of its creative members in 1903, and subsequently wrote several reference works on the Occitan language.

Faithful to his compositions with impressionist hues, Jean-Louis Daniel here depicts the shores of a lake, most certainly in Corrèze. A heavy sky overlooks the edge of the water where pinks and yellows fight to take over the composition. The relatively thick touch of this canvas is to be located around 1900/1910.