Seaweed Fishermen In St Edwett In Cap Sizun By Lionel Floch - Brittany

Watercoloured woodcut, signed and numbered 1/20 bottom left and titled bottom right. Dimensions without frame on view 37 x 50 cm, with frame 52.5 x 65 cm.

Lionel Foch (1895-1972) was a quasi-autodidact trained from college with local artists including "the master" Théophile Deyrolles. Being a good student, Lionel Floch chose to make a career in administration as a receiver of registration, without ever stopping painting. Very quickly he was transferred to Pont-Croix, where a home of very active artists was formed, this group formed the Pont-Croix School bringing together American, Belgian and regional painters. In 1930, they were joined by Jean Moulin, then sub-prefect of Châteaulin and engraver in his spare time, but also by the composer Van Parys, and the writer Max Jacob. The 1950s saw him successively transferred to Grasse and Chinon, then he retired to Quimper in 1958 where he ended his days. Lionel Floch produced and sold many of his works. He created large painted decorations for: Senator Astor in his mansion in Kérazan, for the Pascal brothers' hotel in Quimper, for the car showroom of the Renault garage in Quimper. He also tried his hand at ceramics at the Henriot earthenware factory from the end of the 1930s, but also at drawing and wood engravings. Follower and inventive: Lionel Floch owes these two characteristics to his training outside the academic curriculum. He is in the verist lineage of Simon or Lemordant, but he offers a personal style in phase with the artistic landscape of Brittany, at a time of its modernization.