Philippe Le Gouaille (1912-2001), Portrait Of A Young Boy, 1969, Oil On Canvas

Philippe LE GOUAILLE (1912-2001)
Naive artist - LAVAL

Portrait of a young boy, 1969
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right, dated on the reverse
33 x 34 cm
in its original frame

Self-taught artist, Philippe Le Gouaille was born in Laval in 1912. His works, of infinite grace, left their mark on Laval naive art. The artist developed a particular interest in drawing from childhood. He was first a bank employee before becoming a lieutenant during the Second World War, during which he was interned in Nuremberg until 1945. It was during this long period of internment that he found himself at express through art by decorating the living spaces of the camps, in particular a chapel. After the war, he practiced oil painting until he found his own style in the 1960s and 70s. Unconcerned with reproducing reality, he reinvents the ordinary and arouses the emotion of the viewer thanks to an unreal play of light calling to dreams. He remains a painter of great detail driven by a keen sense of detail.

Public collections
Laval, Museum of Naive Art and Singular Arts

Monographic exhibition
Philippe Le Gouaille, paintings from 1951 to 1986, Laval, Musée du vieux-château (MANAS), 1986

Bibliography
Charles Schaettel, Philippe Le Gouaille, paintings from 1951 to 1986, cat. expo. Laval, Museum of the Old Castle (MANAS), Ville de Laval editions, 1986