Léon Félix (1869-1940) Ploumanac'h Côtes d'Armor Brittany

Léon Pierre FÉLIX
(Périgueux 1869 - 1940)
The coast at Ploumanac'h - Bretagne
Oil on canvas
H. 46 cm; L. 55 cm
Signed lower left, dated 1901

Provenance: Private collection, Burgundy

Léon Pierre Félix, born in Périgueux, quickly joined the capital to train at the National School of Fine Arts or some of his work from 1892 to 1897 can still be found. He was a pupil of Bonnat, Aviat, Cormon, Tony Robert-Fleury, Merson and again William Bouguereau. He was also a member of the Paris Salon of French Artists from 1894 and was part of the jury from 1926. He exhibited very regularly at this salon, at the National des Beaux-Arts, at the Independents and abroad, without forgetting the Salons of Périgueux. Some of his works, acquired by the State for the Luxembourg Museum and the Petit-Palais, are a consecration for him. They can be found today at the Bonnat-Helleu Museum in Bayonne, the MAAP in Périgueux, in Perpignan, Melun, the Polish Embassy, Glasgow, the IFAO in Cayre, etc. outdoor life, his talents for the representation of human faces and the lightness of movement. It is moreover in the museum of Périgueux that there are several of his most beautiful paintings in this spirit. A few large formats resembling decorations have been visible on the art market in recent years, always in this atmosphere close to Bonnat and also leaning towards tints and textures visible in the Symbolists. In 1935, Félix won the Indochina Prize, where he went shortly after. He brought back many drawings representing traditional outfits from Cambodia or Vietnam, such as painted compositions of local life or architectures that he exhibited and sold on his return to France. He obtained a third class medal at the Salon in 1898, an honorable mention at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris, and the Marie-Bashkirtseff prize in 1908. He was made official painter of the Navy in 1910 and knight of the Legion of honor in 1914. He died at his home on rue Chanzy in Périgueux in 1940. If Félix is considered a great portrait painter, no one will be able to miss his talents as a landscape painter. Many of his portraits are taken outdoors, bathed in shimmering light, giving the depicted effigies a frame, a sense of reality. Léon Félix does not hesitate to travel through Périgord and sometimes the Lot to take picturesque views of places that are often innocuous to everyone. He knows how to bring them to life through his mastery of the award-winning technique.

This painting, produced quite early in Félix's career, is off the beaten track of his art. Not only by the location, since it is the only Breton work listed to date, and by the subject itself, produced with a broad touch in the manner of a sketch. This canvas, painted in foggy and certainly wintry weather, represents the coast of round rocks at Ploumanac'h.