Henri Barbier (1881-1960) Sunny Village Lot Aveyron

Henri BARBIER
(Poitiers 1881 - 1960)
Sunny village
Oil on panel
H. 46 cm; L. 61 cm
Signed lower left

Artist remained unknown, Henri Barbier was born in Poitiers. He completed his apprenticeship in Paris with Léon Bonnat and Luc-Olivier Merson. He exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1926 and 1927 and at the Salon de l'Atelier in Bordeaux from 1923 to 1938. He also lived in Caudéran, located outside the boulevards of the big city. With more than a hundred works exhibited on the walls of these shows, we can see a panel of landscapes made from Brittany to Saint Tropez, via Charente, Haute-Loire, Cantal or Aveyron.

Barbier's very luminous palette as well as his pointillist touch brings him very close to the work of the Cadurcien Henri Martin. The compositions of his works, their colors have many links. Should our panel be located in the Lot or the Aveyron? The brown stone, the slate roofs, the small arched bridges over a thin trickle of water running in an alley confirm that we are in the southern half of the country in summer. Is an annotation on the back "Basque village" to be confirmed?