Horace Fonville – View Of The Berre Pond – Oil On Panel – Signed

Beautiful panoramic format for this oil on wood representing the Berre pond around 1860. Those who know the site today will appreciate the wild aspect it had at the time.
The work is precisely located on the back. The scene was captured at dusk, and the clouds are tinged with pink in a sky that occupies half of the panel. The foreground is occupied by a rocky shore, which gradually gives way to calm water. On the horizon, the gaze is lost on the mauve hills. 2 small silhouettes are placed in the center of the composition and seem to be looking at the water.
The touch is quick, leaving the support exposed in places.
The work is in very good condition, clean. It is signed lower left. It is framed in a beautiful 19th century stuccoed wooden frame. This has undergone some minor retouching over time.

The artist
Horace Antoine Fonville was born in Lyon in 1832. He was a student of his father, the painter Nicolas Victor Fonville, then of Adolphe Appian at the École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon from 1847 to 1848.
After a stay in Aix-les-Bains, he settled in Paris for a few years but quickly returned to his native region, in Ain to be precise. Fonville taught drawing in several cities in this department, until 1881 when he became a professor at the famous Ampère high school in Lyon.
He exhibited oil and charcoal landscapes in this same city and in Paris. The French State bought a work from him. He regularly traveled to the south of France and painted Mediterranean landscapes there.
In 1904 he founded the society of artists of Ain, a department he would never leave and where he would continue to paint until his death in 1914.

Work visible at the gallery (07240).
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