Louis Pastour (1876-1948) Provençal Women At The Washhouse ~1930. Cannes, Sospel, Mattio, Bonamici, Cannet

Very beautiful and large oil on canvas by Louis Pastour depicting Provençal women at the wash house around 1930, signed lower left. Size of the canvas alone without frame 61x46cm 70x55cm frame included. This is therefore a magnificent canvas by Louis Pastour who painted Provençal women at the wash house around 1930, I have not located the place but most likely between, Cannes, Cagnes, Sospel, the places he painted the most. We immediately recognize Pastour's paste, thanks to its extremely rich material, generously applied with a knife, as well as its palette of a great richness of warm tones with reds, ochres, yellows, ultramarine blue, greens etc .... The scene is most pleasant, with these women in Provençal dress around the wash house and in the street, these typical houses and even some chickens in the foreground. A major and accomplished work datable to his mature period. I no longer present Louis Pastour, emblematic Provençal painter, renowned for seascapes and landscapes where the material is as if sculpted in order to best capture the typical light of Provence, other painters have tried this same kind of painting such as Laurent Mattio, Gustave Vidal, Louis Bonamici or Joseph Hurard (for these last 2 painters, go see 2 paintings for sale on this same site). Cannes painter, Provençal, Louis Pastour is part of the post-impressionist movement through his own technique, knife painting. Colorist, painter of light, it is with equal mastery that he approaches his favorite themes: seascapes, flowers and landscapes. From childhood, he expressed his passion, his desire to paint and his vocation to fix his emotions in the face of the beauty of nature and landscapes, through the play of color, light and paste. He began working in 1889 as a painter. He received a silver medal in drawing classes at the Polytechnic Association of Cannes. In 1894, he left for Paris. A worker by day, he attended evening classes at the National School of Decorative Arts. To save on brushes, he began painting with a palette knife. Back in Cannes, Louis Pastour married Magdeleine. From this union, they had a son, Auguste, who would become a musician. In 1900, he was a workers' delegate at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. The following year, he presided over the inauguration of the Union of Trade Unions. Very socially involved, he was behind the establishment of the Cannes Industrial Tribunal and the workers' courts. In 1902, Louis Pastour founded the Association of Fine Arts of Cannes (ABAC) with a group of workers passionate about art and created the annual Exhibition of Local Painters. On March 10, 1903, the opening of the first Cannes Salon took place. Building on his success, he opened a store in Cannes selling paints and artist materials, À la Palette de Rubens. This place of cultural exchange became the center of a regional artistic movement. Dukes and princesses frequented illustrious artists. He painted every day from dawn, capturing the moment, the light, from a motif. Although cheerful and warm, he was nonetheless shy and discreet. It was at the initiative of the sculptor Denys Puech that he received the Palmes académiques in 1911. In 1912, he traveled and painted in Egypt. Fascinated by this country, his painting was enriched. In 1913, he stayed in Bruges with his friend, the painter Georges-Émile Lebacq. The rain and fog inspired his palette. A soldier during the First World War, he painted whenever he could. He exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1920 in the salons of the Devambez galleries. His Red Sail was noticed there. He was dubbed "The Painter of the Sun" (Lou Pintre dou Soulèu) and exhibited in France and abroad. The capital would henceforth be an annual rendezvous for the Cannes painter. He brought through his canvases the light of the south, a blaze of colors, and all the ingredients of his inspiring Provence. In search of new landscapes, he painted in Morocco in 1923 and in Italy in 1928. But it was to Cannes, his main source of inspiration, that he always returned. In 1928 he was entrusted with the decoration of the lower station of the Super-Cannes funicular, located on a hill in the Californie - Pezou district. Pastour produced advertising work for the Railways, the PLM (Paris Lyon Méditerranée) diary, and various magazines. Louis Pastour published articles on local life in La Gazette, in Provençal in L’Avenir: “Li Petet de la Pantiero” (“The Pantiere Gossip”), stories and jokes from Cannes. In 1938, he was one of the first painters sold by the young Maeght gallery, 10 rue des Belges in Cannes. He died in Cannes on December 6, 1948, and was buried in the same city in the Grand Jas cemetery. Canvas in perfect condition, delivered in a modern gilded frame. Work guaranteed authentic.