Louis Agricole Montagné (1879-1960) The Dining Room, Avignon. Group Of Thirteen, Provence

Large and superb watercolor by Louis Agricole Montagné representing an interior scene in a dining room, signed lower right + marked on the back sam à Avignon. Size of the watercolor alone without frame 44x60cm or 70x85cm including frame. This is therefore a magnificent and large watercolor by Louis Montagné who paints here one of his favorite subjects, an interior scene, therefore a dining room, perhaps that of the painter? As usual, the drawing is very neat and the coloring in watercolor very subtle. But what could be more logical when we know that Montagné was one of the best French watercolorists of the first half of the 20th century, surely his favorite technique, the one where he best expressed his great talent. Louis Agricol Montagné (Avignon, 1879 - Paris, 1960) was a French painter and watercolourist, a student of Paul Saïn and Fernand Cormon. At a very young age, he collaborated in 1900 with Paul Saïn on the decoration of the restaurant Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. He exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne in 1901 and was declared hors concours in 1911, which earned him a travel grant. Named a knight of the Legion of Honour, he was made an officer in 1932. Living in Paris and in the village of Angles, at the Château de Pontmartin, he was a member of the Groupe des Treize and the new group of regional artists alongside Pierre Alexandre Belladen, Alfred Bergier, Lina Bill, Léon Colombier, Claude Firmin, Jules Flour, Joseph Hurard, Alfred Lesbros, Joseph Meissonnier and the sculptors Jean-Pierre Gras and Paul Gaston Déprez. Montagné was appointed director of the École des Beaux-Arts d'Avignon from 1920 to 1928 and curator of the Villeneuve-lès-Avignon museum. He illustrated André Hallays' book Avignon with twenty watercolors, published in 1928 by Henri Babou. He headed several organizations such as the Committee for the Preservation of Sites and Monuments of Vaucluse, the Association of French Landscapers and the Association of French Watercolorists. He founded the Salon du dessin et de la peinture à l'eau. This watercolor is in very good condition, delivered in a pretty contemporary baguette with a blue patina. Work guaranteed authentic PS: for information I am offering another watercolor by Montagné, la cuillette à Caderousse in Vaucluse (see my other ad)