René Seyssaud (1867-1952) Spring Landscape Around Mont Ventoux

Color, light and the energetic and spontaneous touch of the first draft, a technique that the artist mastered perfectly, playing with the support and alternating the reserves of the canvas with the effects of material.
The work done in oil on canvas is presented in a Montparnasse-type frame that measures 64 cm by 57 cm and 46 cm by 38 cm for the canvas alone. It represents a spring landscape of the surroundings of Mont Ventoux where the artist lived and worked a large part of the year.
In excellent condition, it is signed by the studio stamp which bears the inventory number 160 at the bottom right.
A colorful and lively work.

A precursor of Fauvism, member of the New School of Avignon, in 1892, Seyssaud sent a copy to the Indépendants as well as to the Champs de Mars. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from its foundation, at the Parc de Bouteville in 1897, and in 1899, at Vollard. He achieved all the success he had hoped for. His art provoked the strongest reactions in the press. Because, as a critic of the time wrote, he brought "An entirely new note". These are, says another, speaking of his paintings, spontaneous things that owe nothing to anyone and consequently should be appreciated by those who love the courage, the energetic candor of a man who has had no master and does not want to have a patron". Vollard offers Seyssaud a contract, but the latter refuses out of loyalty to his friend and Marseilles dealer François Honnorat. In 1901, he exhibited every year at Bernheim Jeune. The latter, like Vollard, offered to take charge of his interests. Seyssaud still preferred to reject this association, however rich it might be in consequences. -After 1911, Seyssaud stopped exhibiting at Bernheim to choose Rosemberg (1914), Druet (1924), 1927), Printz (1929), Georges Petit (1930), Javal and Boudeaix (1933), Printz (1933). -He exhibited in Marseille in 1905, 1907, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1928, 1947, 1949. -In Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Tunis, etc... -In America in 1947. -Seyssaud participated in official exhibitions in Berlin (1903), Amsterdam (1912), Barcelona (1917, 1929), New York (1929), Wiesbaden (1921), Ghent (1922), Stockholm (1923), Geneva (1923,1942), Turin (1951), Colonial Exhibition of Marseille (1922), International of Paris (1937), Prefecture of Marseille (1949), Biennale of Menton (1951), Cantini Museum (1954), Zurich (1955), Galliera Museum (1956), Oxford, London, Edinburgh (1957), Aix-en-Provence, Festival (1957). -He had purchases from the State for Luxembourg (1903, 1904, 1921, 1927, 1929, 1930). For the Museums of Marseille (1908, 1919), Lyon (1924), Avignon (1920), Prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône (1933), Town Hall of Saint-Chamas (1909), National Museum of Modern Art (1957). -He is represented at the Petit Palais, the Museum of Modern Art, the Léon Dierx Museum (Ille de la Réunion), in Moscow. Also in Dijon, Nîmes, Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Grenoble, Montpellier, Albi, etc... He has had various medals and awards. Among others, the Gold Medal of the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris, that of the city of Marseille in 1947. The Grand Prix of the French provinces in 1951, at the Biennale of Menton. Seyssaud had been an officer of the Legion of Honor since 1947. Among the posthumous events, retrospectives at the Calvet Museum (1953), Cantini Museum (1954), Salon d'Automne, Château d'Arbon in Switzerland (1955), Galliera Museum. -His paintings are among the collections of Gustave Geffroy, Frantz Jourdain, Vollard, Georges Feydeau, Sacha Guitry, Armand Dayot, Lucien Poincaré, Maurice Sarraut, Albert Sarraut, Paulhan, Bernheim, Estaunié, Descaves, Morsolf, Fernand Bouisson, Drouant, André Marie, the Marquis de Biron, the Princess of La Tour d'Auvergne, de Wagram etc.