"Henri Jamet (1858-1940) Night Landscape In Creuse Or Berry. School Of Crozant Gargilesse Detroy"
4th and last gouache watercolor out of 4 by Henri Jamet, this one represents a night landscape with a mill near a bridge in Creuse or Berry, signed lower left (I sold almost the same work a few days ago, this time the view is painted at night). Format of the watercolor alone at sight 24x32cm and 41x49cm frame included. This one therefore represents a starry night landscape with a bridge and mill near a village, most likely in Creuse or Berry in the vicinity of Gargilesse, I have not yet identified the place, but it should be easy for connoisseurs of the area. Its composition is perfect, worthy of the great watercolorist that he was, probably his favorite technique thanks to which his great talent was perceived and recognized. Superb charcoal drawing that he then colors with blues, browns, sky blue and some touches of ochre and highlights of white gouache. Night views are very difficult to paint, yet Jamet achieves it with great mastery. Because Henri Jamet is today one of the 10 best painters of the Crozant school, and one of the 3 most famous artists of the village of Gargilesse alongside Detroy and Allan Osterlind, since he will live there for a large part of his life, just opposite the castle. Henri Pierre Jamet born in Gien (Loiret) on September 25, 1858 and died in Gargilesse (Indre) on October 17, 1940 was the student of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then of Henri Harpignies and Albert Maignan. Henri Jamet's artistic career took place mainly between Montmartre and Gargilesse, where his wife Marie Mahout — also a painter — and he himself had a house and a secondary studio. By turns a decorator, a landscaper particularly attached to the Creuse valley, but also an author of still lifes and a skilled portraitist, he appears above all as a master of genre painting. We owe him in particular several Berry Interiors. A member of the French Artists Association, he was awarded numerous prizes at the various exhibitions in which he participated, both in Paris and in the provinces. He notably won a bronze medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition for A Family of Weavers and The Widow's Garden. He is represented in several French museums (in Paris at the Petit Palais, Auxerre, Châteauroux, La Châtre, Bourges, Orléans) and in Russia (former Roumyantsev Museum in Moscow, current location unknown). He participated in the decoration of the Château de Charbonnière in Saint-Jean-de-Braye and that of the town hall of Montrouge. The decorative panels he had created for the Saint-Pierre church in Gien were declared destroyed during the bombings of 1940. According to the newspaper "Le Giennois" of March 15, 1941, two of them - to this day not located - could however have been removed from the ruins of the church "without being too damaged." Henri Jamet is the father of Pierre Jamet (1893-1991) and the grandfather of Marie-Claire Jamet, (born in 1933), both internationally renowned harpists. He is also the father of Charles Jamet, cellist, and the grandfather of Lucien Jamet, painter and ceramist. He is the great-grandfather of Jean-François Jamet and Eric Jamet (1957-2019). He died in Gargilesse on October 17, 1940. For your information, there is an excellent book dedicated to Henri Jamet produced by Christian Jamet and Jean-Marc Ferrer by "les Ardents éditeurs" in Limoges, a book that accompanied very beautiful exhibitions at the museums of the Creuse Valley in Eguzon and Gien. (You can get it on the publisher's website or in any good bookstore.) This watercolor is in perfect condition, delivered in a modern golden baguette, Work guaranteed authentic