Defossez Born 1932 Gouache 54cm X38cm "jockey And His Horse" Dated 1965 Signed Lower Right

Defossez Large Gouache 54cm Biography Starting to paint at the age of fifteen, Alfred Defossez followed courses at the Académie Julian in Paris for four years, with Pierre Jérôme as his master, then entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1956 to be a student of Roger Chapelain-Midy, Pierre-Henri Ducos de La Haille and Boris Taslitzky. He was selected for the Young Painting Prize in 1957. Alfred Defossez evokes “the light of summer” as a major source of inspiration for his work and likes to quote Arthur Rimbaud in this regard to state his perception of “the countryside crossed by bands of rare music »2. He lived at 18, rue des Plantes in the 14th arrondissement of Paris before settling in Seillans (Var). “Landscapes, racing scenes, views of Paris, the artist synthesizes the atmosphere and light of his subjects in cold colors and quite systematically geometricizes the landscape into essential lines. » - Gérald Schurr “In a very elliptical style, he removes all detail, reduces the elements of his compositions to their simplest structure. This austerity of form is, however, compensated by colorful indications which revive the figured reality. » - Bénézit Dictionary “this famous chromatic freedom, which he disciplines and releases in turn, allows him to structure a certain geometry of the landscape and a spontaneous modulation of the touch. It obtains a muted sound of color, a contrasting effusion, the differentiating elements of which contribute to a side by side of transparencies, translucent blurs, faded contours, in a range of half-tones where shades of gray subtly play , pink, degraded or magnified white, with tones of pastel, red and yellow, green, brown and gold from which elongated silhouettes emerge reminiscent of the tapestries of Bernard Cathelin. He has a predilection for large, cloudless skies, a streak of night or dawn, stretched to the edge of the horizon, where he perceives these bands of rare music2 which he collects like a scattered treasure. » - Camille Sautet