Georges Darnet (1859-1936) Landscape Of Corrèze Monédières égletons

Georges DARNET
(Périgueux 1859 - 1936)
Landscape of Corrèze
Oil on canvas
H. 50 cm; L. 65 cm
Signed lower left

Provenance: Private collection of a doctor in Périgueux, then in Limoges

Georges Darnet was born in Périgueux, to a family of tailors from the banks of the Dordogne around Lalinde by his father and a family of butchers from the capital of the department through his mother. He grew up and continued his studies in Périgueux before moving to Bordeaux to attend the School of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, we do not know the details of his life or his career, but we do know that he will be under the leadership of Louis Auguin, a famous Bordeaux painter representing all the dunes of the Atlantic coast. It is certainly through learning alongside the master that he will opt for works with light and luminous shades where the color will never take precedence over the downy atmosphere. Upon his return to Périgueux after his studies, Georges Darnet became a professor at the city's drawing school that Jean-Georges Pasquet directed. This painter who is eight years his senior will become his faithful friend. They will work side by side on the pattern on their free days. He was mobilized during the First World War, at the age of 55, and was wounded three times until February 1918, which earned him the Croix de Guerre, without even being demobilized. However, he did not abandon his brushes, and even presented his works at the Salon des Artistes Français of which he was already a member in his youth, and where he obtained an honorable mention in 1920 and a third medal in 1928.

Lovers of Périgord paintings easily recognize the light of Darnet and particularly its light colors that no other painter working in this region uses. A regular visitor to Corrèze where he stays very regularly, Georges Darnet brings back numerous works from this neighboring department. The Égletons region is particularly pampered by the painter, where resinous trees and peat bogs, heather moors and large plateaus mingle. Our beautiful format landscape, which was in the collection of a doctor who began his career in Périgueux, certainly represents this Haute-Corrèze, near the Monédières mountains.