Arnaud-durbec, Père Beillez And Père Colombe, Catalan Fishermen In Marseille (1861)

JEAN-BAPTISTE ARNAUD-DURBEC (Marseille 1827- Paris 1910)
Père Beillez and Père Colombe, Catalan fishermen at Marseille
1861
Oil on canvas glued to board
28 x 34 cm
Dated and signed in red on lower right: 26 9bre 61. / Arnaud-Durbec
Label lower right with the number 211
Board is curved

Two Catalan fishermen, one wearing a red Catalan bonnet, the other a flat cap, repair their fishing traps near a hut in front of the calanques of Marseille. On the back of the painting, there are two inscriptions; one, difficult to decipher, is written in graphite by Arnaud-Durbec himself, while the other, done in pen, is a repetition of the first and was written by Albert Arnaud, the artist's nephew, who took charge of his uncle's studio after his death. These inscriptions identify the two fishermen by their names: "Père Beillez (brother of the Catalan, type of the n – – – – ?) / and Père Colombe, Catalan fishermen Marseille 1857 / by Arnaud-Durbec". This painting is listed in the handwritten catalogue of Arnaud-Durbec's works, by his nephew Albert Arnaud, as: "211- Catalan fishermen in Marseille securing fishing gear (longline) on cardboard 33 x 28." This is an important painting for the art and history of Marseille, because it is much more than a genre piece, thanks to Arnaud-Durbec the Catalan fisermen, Père Beillez and Père Colombe are with us forever.