Fishing By The Sea - Arthur Hurni - Oil On Canvas Signed And Dated

Fishing By The Sea - Arthur Hurni  (1903 – 1993)- Oil On Canvas Signed and Dated 48

Swiss actor and painter born in Geneva. In his youth, dissuaded by those around him from turning to the fine arts, he began a theatrical and cinematographic career during which he played supporting roles from 1923 to 1937. Abandoning the acting profession, he left for the 1940s in search of somewhere else, first among the Indians of Panama then for Tahiti where he remained until 1950. It was there in this universe of bright and well-defined colors that he began to paint, finding the material that corresponds to his sensitivity, Hurni's painting is figurative, clear and simple, made up of uniform and well-defined solid colors. Even more than the influence of Matisse and Gauguin, we find there especially that of the customs officer Rousseau. There is no shadow and the prospect is of little interest to him. Back in Switzerland, he will continue all his remaining life to paint in his initial way, both synthetic and naive.
The oil on canvas presented here is from his Tahitian period in 1948, having long belonged to one of his friends, Mr. Gomichon Des Granges, a lawyer and large landowner in the New Hebrides. With great economy of lines and colors, it remarkably conveys the atmosphere of the Polynesian lagoon.