Charles François Pécrus (1826-1907) Boat Trip

Charles François PÉCRUS (1826-1907) boat trip oil on canvas signed lower right table to clean and tension band to put on. .... Born, like Auguste Renoir, in Limoges, but 15 years earlier and "by accident" (during a theatrical tour of his father, who was an actor, Charles Pécrus had to earn his living early, working in the Ponts-et-Chaussées in Paris. His gifts for drawing enabled him to take courses at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he had "genre" painters such as Fichel as masters, and he went on to at the Louvre to copy the great classical painters. It was with genre scenes that he began to exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1857 and could henceforth live from his painting. In 1865, his sending to the Salon, The day after the wedding, was bought for 2,000F (high sum at the time) by Napoleon III.The precision of his drawing, the accuracy of his tones, the grace of the attitudes of his characters can compete with the qualities of the greatest Flemish and French painters of the 17th century and 18th centuries, from which he was obviously inspired, but in an original way.From 1865, the neighborhood of Eugène Boudin, who moved to 31 rue Fontaine, while Pécrus lived at 42 (where he remained until his death in 1907) perhaps explains the friendship that will bind them and the new and growing interest of Pécrus in outdoor painting and, in particular, seascapes. Frequenting Jongkind also contributes, it seems, to this development, more marked after 1870. Pécrus will paint on the Normandy coast, in the Barbizon region, on the Mediterranean, in Venice, in Holland. He sometimes paints the same subjects or the same sites as Boudin, but his way is very different (less wide panoramas, less choppy touch), and is closer to that of Jongkind. But it was not until around 1885 that he abandoned genre painting almost entirely. Under the influence of the Impressionists, his manner became freer (less clearly delineated contours, use of separate color spots), without however sacrificing the accuracy of the design, the correctness of the tones, or the elegance of the composition. He exhibited at the Salon for the last time in 1905 and continued to paint until his death in 1907, after an existence of modest work which, away from coteries and schools, quite simply allowed him to earn a living. , as well as that of his family, in the absence of the fame (sometimes ephemeral...) of certain others.