Auguste Chabaud (1882-1955) Picking Olives Around Les Baux De Provence

Powerful and solid this oil on cardboard by the Provençal master Auguste Chabaud. A tireless surveyor of the mountain, the artist represented in this painting a woman on a ladder, picking olives in a landscape around Les Baux de Provence, which he particularly liked. Faithful to the vigorous and expressionist style and as usual, we can see on this imposing oil on canvas several "repentances" especially in the trees which give this work produced between 1915 and 1920 a modern side and compatible with an interior decoration. contemporary. The work is framed in a modern black frame, of the American box type which measures 70 cm by 101 cm and 60 cm by 92 cm for the canvas alone. It is signed lower right, on the back the inventory number 849 affixed by the family as well as an old label from the Galerie Jouvène in Marseille which was one of the painter's dealers. Entering the School of Fine Arts in Avignon in 1896, Auguste Chabaud's master was Pierre Grivolas. Then in 1899, he left for Paris to continue his studies at the Académie Julian and at the École des beaux-arts, in the studio of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924). He meets Henri Matisse and André Derain. The wine estate of his parents suffered the crisis of 1900, forcing Auguste Chabaud to go back down to the South. In 1901, Auguste Chabaud had to leave Paris to earn a living, he embarked as a pilot (or pilot) on a ship and discovered the West African coast. The same year his father dies; he inherits with his brother the vineyard property and the land that only his brother will manage. During this period, Chabaud worked a lot on butcher's paper. From 1903 to 1906, he did his military service in Tunisia from where he would return with sketchbooks filled with local images, including many drawings of soldiers, natives and bar scenes populated by girls and sailors. . Back in Paris, Chabaud made his debut in 1907 at the Salon des Indépendants, exhibiting among the Fauves. He will discover a new life, that of Parisian nightlife and cabarets. Collectors are beginning to take an interest in his work. In Montmartre where he has his studio, he paints busy or deserted streets and squares, nightlife scenes and brothels. In 1911, he began his cubist period, working in large formats and sculpting. Many exhibitions followed, including that of New York in 1913 where he exhibited alongside Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Pablo Picasso, then in Chicago and Boston. His canvases from the Fauve period describe Parisian nightlife: cabarets, theater cafés, prostitutes, in shades of bright colors (yellow, red) contrasting with the colors of the night (navy blue, black). On his return from the First World War, in 1919, Auguste Chabaud settled permanently in Graveson, in the Alpilles. From 1920, he began his blue period (he used pure Prussian blue) in which Provence, its characters and its customs were highlighted. The South, which he never stopped painting, even during his Parisian period, will henceforth occupy him exclusively. As Paul Cézanne had done with the Sainte-Victoire mountain, Auguste Chabaud will immortalize "the mountain", painting scenes of the countryside, peasants surveying the hills and paths of the Alpilles. He will remain there until the end of his life, living in seclusion in his house with his wife and seven children. Nicknamed the "hermit of Graveson", he died in 1955. Some of his works can be seen in Marseilles at the Cantini museum, in Paris at the national museum of modern art, at the museum of modern art of the city of Paris, and in Geneva at the Petit Palais. In 1992, the PACA regional council opened a museum in his honor in Graveson. Painters regularly pay homage to him, such as Claude Viallat in 2003. Auguste Chabaud wrote poems and books such as: L'Estocade de Vérité, Le Tambour Gautier, I took myself for Demosthène. Works in public collections France Toulon, art museum: Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, oil on cardboard, 53 × 76 cm. Troyes, Museum of Modern Art: La Gare, 1907, oil on canvas, 73 × 100 cm. National Pompidou Center Beaubourg Museum Paris Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg Vatican Museum Rome