Delavallée - Oil - Pont Aven School - The Wheat Thresher

A characteristic theme of the Pont-Aven school, threshing wheat with a flail was notably represented around 1890 by Henry MORET, Paul SÉRUSIER or Henri DELAVALLÉE.

In addition to a pastel, we know of two oils by the latter illustrating wheat threshers, one now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper, the second, measuring 50 x 65 cms, having been sold for around 25,000 euros by Artcurial on December 8, 2015 (lot 104).

We think quite logically that our painting constitutes the preparatory work for this one, we can also guess underlying pencil lines, some repentances (modified angle of the flail for example), a fairly fluid material allowing a certain speed of execution and visible reserves.

If the framing is identical, we note many differences with the canvas sold by Artcurial, starting with the addition of two threshers and the shift to the right of the initial thresher.
The top of the central tree has also been removed in order to allow perfect visibility of the flail raised by the peasant woman (see comparative photo), an important detail that allows us to understand the modifications and improvements made by Henri DELAVALLÉE.
The colors used (blue-green of the trees for example) and the use of parallel touches remind us of the pastels made by the artist at this time.

A rare and superb subject for lovers of the Pont-Aven school or Breton paintings !

BIOGRAPHY:
A brilliant student, Henri Delavallée enrolled at the Sorbonne as well as at the École des Beaux-Arts where he was a student of Carolus-Duran and Luc-Olivier Merson.
In 1881, he came to Pont-Aven and stayed there regularly in the following years, meeting Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard in 1886.
In 1887 he went to Bourron-Marlotte, working with Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat, and in 1889 to the hamlet of Landemer, in Gréville, the birthplace of Jean-François Millet.
He then painted divisionist and pointillist paintings. He returned to Pont-Aven in 1894, settling in the Julia hotel, owned by Julia Guillou (1848-1927) but, attracted by the exotic, he left with his wife for Constantinople, only returning to France in 1901, living until 1910 sometimes in Paris, sometimes in Apremont and sometimes in Pont-Aven where the couple settled permanently from 1910.
He died in Pont-Aven in 1943.

His works are present in several museums: Brest Museum of Fine Arts, Breton Departmental Museum, Quimper Museum...

PROVENANCE : Château du Bois de la Motte (castle), Pleslin-Trigavou (Côtes d'Armor, Brittany, France), former collection of Maître Daniel OFFRET, auctioneer in Drouot Paris in 80'-90's

Oil on cardboard

27 x 32 cms (sold without frame)

Unsigned

Good general condition, work has just been completely cleaned, the small defects present (slight losses in the sky at the top left, marks of friction from an old frame...) have deliberately not been retouched to keep the painting in its original condition

Photos taken in sunlight

SALE WITH INVOICE FROM OUR GALLERY

KINDLY CHECK OUR OTHER PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS FOR SALE !