Julien Saraben (1892-1979) The Port Of Honfleur Normandy Calvados

Julien SARABEN
(Le Havre 1892 - Périgueux 1979)
The port of Honfleur
Oil on Hardboard
H. 33 cm; L. 45.5 cm
Signed lower center. Dedicated and located on the back.

Provenance : Raphaël Lambert Collection, by descent.

Son of two artists, the young Julien Saraben began his training in the favorable family universe, then at the School of Fine Arts in Le Havre, his birthplace. Logically, his journey goes up the Seine to reach Paris and the studio of Raphaël Collin, at the Beaux-Arts. On the eve of the great war of 1914, Saraben received his first degree as a drawing teacher, a career that he would begin in 1920. During the war years he was in Eugène Deshayes' studio and worked on numerous sets. theater of all kinds. At the end of the 1920s, the young professor reached Périgord, which he would never leave. He became a drawing teacher at the boys' high school in Périgueux, then in 1931 took charge of the municipal drawing school. Ten years later, the mayor of the city placed Julien Saraben at the head of the Musée du Périgord (now MAAP), of which he was curator until 1958, when he retired to fully devote himself to his art. A great designer, Saraben illustrated many works, many of them engraved with a burin and other series on wood. Eugène Le Roy, Father Georges Rocal and many others passed their texts before the eyes of the engraver who magnified the word and the land of Périgord.

This view of Honfleur is not the most classic. Painters have a habit of illustrating at least in one corner of their composition, the famous lieutenancy. Saraben does not seek this simplicity and places itself alongside this famous building. It illustrates the opposite part of the harbor, cut out by the small fishing boats in the foreground.