Jean-georges Pasquet (1851-1936) Le Taravellou At The Bachellerie Dordogne Périgord

Jean-Georges PASQUET
(Périgueux 1851 - 1936)
Le Taravellou à la Bachellerie
Oil on panel
H. 41 cm; L. 28.5 cm
Signed and dated 1917 lower left. Located on the back.

Provenance: Private collection, Avignon

Jean-Georges Pasquet was born in 1851, in Périgueux. After a very poorly documented Périgord childhood, the young artist arrived in Paris and joined the School of Fine Arts from which he graduated a few years later. He returned to his land in 1879 to take charge of the municipal drawing school of Périgueux, and also became a drawing teacher at the Normal Schools for boys and girls. A student of Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefèvre and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, the painter places his easel on the banks of the Dordogne or the Isle to "tell some memories" through realistic landscapes filled with gentleness. Through his style, the painter reveals a great idea to his compatriots, of his country and his origins. We find works devoid of artifice, representing inhabitants of the region, working their land or simply strolling along the paths. These paintings or drawings by Pasquet retrace life in Périgord at dawn and during the 20th century, always located in very specific places. He is one of the artists of the Périgueux School. This school, somewhat forgotten in the history of art, highlights the heritage and identity of the Périgord lands. Among the representatives, we find Jean-Louis Daniel, André Saigne, Georges Darnet, René Laforest, Roger Favard and André Prugent. This movement has as a common denominator a theme which stands out from the canons of the time: landscape.
“It is a school without a leader and without a dominant style, but which worked with extraordinary enthusiasm. They liked to tackle pieces of nature that we call picadis here. »
Jean-Michel Linfort

Accompanied by another panel forming the pair, this work takes us off the beaten track of Périgord painting. The usual subjects which guide us towards the capital of the Petrocores, or towards the beautiful sites of Périgord Noir, often make us forget small localities such as the village of La Bachellerie, located near Montignac (Lascaux) and Terrasson. Here it is an even more hidden place, in the bed of the Taravellou stream which has its source in Badefols d'Ans, passes through Saint-Rabier and Peyrignac before joining the Cern course at Bachellerie.

This panel by Pasquet, always in its very luminous compositions where vegetation is king, gives us a slight change of scenery, without taking us beyond the borders of our dear country.