Georges Darnet (1859-1936) Heights Of Périgueux Dordogne

Georges DARNET
(Périgueux 1859 - 1936)
Heights of Périgueux
Oil on cardboard
H. 27 cm; L. 35 cm
Signed lower left

Provenance: Private collection, Périgueux

Georges Darnet was born in Périgueux, from a family of tailors originating from the banks of the Dordogne around Lalinde by his father and from a family of butchers in the capital of the department by his mother. He grew up and continued his studies in Périgueux before joining Bordeaux to be a boarder at the School of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, we do not know the details of his life or his career, but we do know that he will be under the guidance of Louis Auguin, a famous Bordeaux painter representing all the dunes of the Atlantic coast. It is certainly by learning alongside the master that he will opt for works in light and luminous hues where color will never take precedence over the fluffy atmosphere. As soon as he returned to Périgueux after his studies, Georges Darnet became a professor at the drawing school in the city that Jean-Georges Pasquet directs. This painter who is eight years his senior will become his faithful friend. They will work side by side on the pattern on their free days. He was mobilized during the First World War, at the age of 55, and was wounded three times until February 1918, which earned him the Croix de Guerre, without even being demobilized. However, he did not abandon his brushes, and even presented his works at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he was already a member in his youth, and where he obtained an honorable mention in 1920 and a third medal in 1928.

Certainly to be classified among the works of the softest of Darnet, this picadi made on the heights of Périgueux is a mixture of greens and light pinks. A sculpted landscape in the foreground delicately opens onto a horizon of hills and sky blending in pastel shades. The second plan shows us the city of Périgueux, from which the domes of the Saint-Front cathedral protrude. The freshness provided by the entire composition adds to the natural softness that the artist always imposes on the viewer.