René Laforest (1893-1972) Thatched Cottage In Corrèze

René LAFOREST
(Périgueux 1893 - 1972)
Thatched cottage in Corrèze
Oil on strong cardboard
H. 37 cm; L. 45 cm
Signed and dated lower right - 1926

Provenance: Private collection, Périgueux

Son and grandson of a cabinetmaker, René Laforest grew up in Périgueux in the world of wood and its sculpture. It is certainly thanks to this profession that he traced his first pencil lines on the material, representing moldings and decorations in grisailles and shading and then working them with his gouges. If we do not know his training path, we nevertheless know with whom he did his practical classes. These are Léon Félix and Emile Chaumont, two artists whose palette and brushes were very similar. It is the latter of whom Laforest feels the most in his works and with whom he has shared many painting expeditions. He only exhibited at the Salon Périgourdin in 1925, 1932 and 1950, although he was already working on his works in the early 1910s. In Paris he quickly made his mark in the biggest salons where he sent paintings every year (French Artists, Independents, Autumn, etc.) from the end of the 1930s. In 1926, the year preceding the death of his master Emile Chaumont, they traveled together in Corrèze from which they brought back works. A small house with a thatched roof is found with extremely close framing, in the corpus of the two painters, paintings made side by side.

This painting created alongside Chaumont, here it is. Simple composition where the rustic residence takes up all the space. The light turns the thatch purplish, which resembles the colors of the stone. Laforest simplifies the location by removing a low wall, trees in front of the house and a fence placed against the wall in the foreground. Chaumont seems to restore reality.