Henri Barnoin (1882-1940) Large Painting Depicting A Breton Festival In Finistère

Important painting oil on canvas from the Art Deco period signed H.BARNOIN (Henri Alphonse Barnoin 1882-1940) Breton School titled on the back "Pardon de Saint Guénolé" depicting a great Breton festival called Jour de Pardon (a festival that is both religious and secular, rooted in the need to find oneself near the sea between earth and sky around a bell tower). Beautiful composition with shimmering colors emerging from a splendid Breton summer day called "Gouel Breizh" bringing together hundreds of participants in traditional costumes gathered in a friendly atmosphere adjoining the idyllic site of the chapel "Notre Dame de la Joie" built in the town of Penmarch on the edge of the Bigouden country in southern Finistère. Henri Barnoin built this work with a palette that, as with the Impressionists, is brightened by bright free touches, perfectly mastered by the lightness and liveliness of the brush, to escort us to a beautiful summer landscape richly animated where the artist orders his plans and structures the space by the color which remains the dynamic thanks to a specific rendering of the atmosphere of this open-air party while preserving the evocation of the spirit of the places guided by the portrait of the groups carefully arranged in local costumes with a dark and colorful dominance. Our painting is objectively worthy of the artist's finest achievements. Rare large format in very good general and original condition presented in a refined gilded wooden frame with rocaille motif leaf. Please note that the outline of the canvas is stamped many times with the Barnoin studio stamp. Dimensions: 94 cm X 81 cm / on view: 73 cm X 60 cm Henri Barnoin was born in Paris into a family of artists. His father and uncles were also painters. He was a student of Luc-Olivier MERSON, but he especially inherited from Emile DAMERON, his second master, his taste for anecdotal landscapes that he generally enlivened with peasant crowds, fishermen and boats, markets, rocky coasts and processions, it is the entire repertoire of folkloric Brittany that nourishes his work. He exhibited seascapes and views of Paris in watercolor at the Salon since 1909. A work that, in its serenity and its well-assured technique, is the faithful mirror of the painter's fervor for Breton daily life. He chose to settle in Concarneau, a port that he had already frequented before the Great War. In this port much visited by painters, a few personalities dominate. Fernand Le Gout-Gérard made a specialty of market scenes and port themes. Henri Barnoin would follow the same path. The richness of the subjects is evident to all. Barnoin, a talented painter, is also an excellent pastellist. He favours the effects of light, sunrises and the setting sun that sets the port ablaze. In the manner of Le Gout-Gérard, he likes groups of fishermen or Breton women. His production is very important with some very beautiful successes with bluish harmonies, but also with many repetitions. Living in Concarneau in the summer, he had opened a gallery workshop on the Pénéroff quay. He received other painter friends there. A prolific painter, he was a tireless worker: Victor Giffard, photographer and press correspondent, writes in his artist medallions: “Henri Barnoin, like so many others, seduced and charmed, made Brittany his chosen land. From the rocks of Saint-Guénolé to the chapels of Faouet, from Saint-Michel de Quimperlé to the towers of Saint-Corentin, from the bay of Douarnenez to the Ville Close of Concarneau, in every corner of Cornouaille he set up his easel. A tireless worker, he is everywhere with a brush in his hand... Dressed in blue canvas, with a beret on his head, he paints with enthusiasm, with passion... The harmonious and vibrant tones of a distinguished palette are in his case at the service of a personal vision..." Henri Barnoin died in Paris at the age of 57. The Musée du Faouet devoted a major retrospective to him in this 2006 season. On this occasion, Jean-Marc Michaud, departmental curator of the museums of Morbihan, dedicated a volume to him published by Editions Le Télégramme.