Paul Rue "the Shepherdess And Her Sheep" Crozant School (maillaud Detroy Brenne Chateauroux)

Paul Rue famous painter of the school of Crozant here a large oil on canvas which is quite rare representing a shepherdess with a sheep which seems to have certainly fled to Creuse or around in a pretty Montparnasse frame in carved wood. Paul Rue, born in Châteauroux on October 8, 1866, 149 rue Grande, and died in Poinçonnet on May 26, 1954, is a French landscape painter. If the artist will hardly leave the department of Indre6 - "this country more melancholic than grandiose" -, between its borders he turns out to be a nomadic landscaper: the valley of the Creuse, the surroundings of Poinçonnet, but especially the Brenne are his places of privileged inspiration. About the latter, in an autograph letter, he says he is seduced by its strange and captivating character. The Brenne and its ponds are also conducive to the expression of one's emotions, in a more directly poetic register, marked by gentleness and serenity. In a talk on the painters of Berry, he also writes: "...the soft, slightly grey light that envelops our countryside everywhere gives its skies an incomparable finesse (...). There is no shortage of motifs. It is the Creuse that painfully escapes from its gorges of the Marche and whose valley from one end to the other offers ready-made landscapes to the eyes; it is the shady trails and charming corners of our Vallée Noire, so named because it is blue; the plains of Champagne, as richly coloured in spring as harmonious in the autumn ploughing time; our diverse forests; finally this strange and mysterious Brenne with its innumerable mirrors of water where marvellous skies are reflected. Attached to expressing the tiny nuances of this light of the landscapes of the Indre, his main themes are autumnal, wintery, mostly illustrated by sunsets, twilights and mist. If, at the beginning, he uses a palette with restrained tones, Over time, it becomes clearer and brighter. The tree is also a major point in his work, always holding an important place in the structure of the landscape. To do this, the practice of studying trees was daily. His work as a landscaper is also inspired by his experience as a great hunter tirelessly roaming the countryside. He also enjoys regularly evoking hunting scenes. It is not surprising that he had nothing but contempt for the modern painting of his time, that of the Fauves and the Cubists. Although he will execute some illustrations of it, a series of his paintings is more directly inspired by the Tales of the Limousine by his half-brother Gabriel Nigond: La Lisette, Le Facteur, Tout dret, Le Moulin mort.