Louis Nattero (1870-1915) Figures On The Tamaris Corniche In La Seyne Sur Mer

The charm and tranquility of a bygone era.
A lovely testament to the sweetness of life at the end of the 19th century and a Sunday atmosphere by the sea on the Corniche Tamaris.
The work is presented in a lovely Louis XIV style frame with a gilded patina that measures 45 cm by 57 cm and 27 cm by 41 cm for the canvas alone.
It depicts walkers and people sitting on the parapet of the Corniche Tamaris in La Seyne sur Mer near Toulon.
In good condition, only an old restoration on the back, invisible on the paint side, it is signed lower right.

Louis Alexandre Marie Nattero was born on October 16, 1870 in Marseille, 1 rue du Pharo, from Dominique Nattero's second marriage to Jeanne Joussaume.
His parents quickly separated in 1872 and, in 1880, Louis was placed in an orphanage.
Passionate about drawing, he produced his first works around the age of 11: portraits that he managed to sell in order to survive.
After an unhappy childhood, he turned to painting. In 1891, in Toulon, he married Lucie Durbec, with whom he had nine children. His son, Joseph Nattero, born in Marseille in 1904, followed in his father's footsteps and painted throughout his life.
At the age of 26, from October 1896 to April 1897, thanks to a scholarship from the city of Toulon, he attended the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris for a few months, where he was a student of Léon Bonnat.
However, he suffered from lead poisoning and was reluctantly forced to abandon his Parisian studies.
He then returned to Toulon, then settled permanently in Marseille, his hometown, in 1904.
He also spent time in Aix-en-Provence.
His talent was quickly recognized and his paintings met with great success from 1905.
He participated in most of the salons in the Marseille and Toulon region and worked tirelessly to support his large family.
In Toulon, he exhibited, among others, at the framer Lacqua (31 rue d'Alger) and at the Albano gallery (rue des Trois Dauphins). He was present, in 1902, at the exhibition of the Friends of the Arts of Toulon and won several prizes.
In Marseille, his studio was located on boulevard de la Corderie and his works were regularly featured at the Vallet gallery, rue Paradis.
He exhibited at the salon of the Association of Students and at the Grand Cercle Républicain in 1905.
In 1914, war broke out and three of his sons left for the front.
His paintings no longer sold, and a deep despair overcame him.
On November 10, 1915, at his home at 42 Boulevard Joachim in Marseille, he committed suicide by shooting himself in front of his son Joseph.
After a ceremony at the church in Bonneveine, he was buried in a common grave in the Mazargues cemetery.
The day after his death, the Petit Marseillais launched a collection to help his widow and children.
In the Pointe Rouge district, the Marseille town hall named a roundabout after him.
In 2004, the Musée du Vieux Toulon organized an exhibition: "Louis Nattero (1870-1915) - Victor Senchet (1879-1973), painters."
The sea:
Fishing boats: Louis Nattero is above all a painter of the Mediterranean. For him, it is the true subject of expression when he paints the poetry of twilight, the dormant waves of the creeks, the fishermen hauling in their nets in an almost hushed calm.
He is not the painter of tumult.
In his work, the characters are rare, often distant: a sailor drinking at the feast, a boat on the horizon, fishermen mending their nets, walkers on a quay.
Like a photographer, he captures his subjects in everyday life and interprets them freely.
Largely influenced by the Impressionists, Nattero makes light the essential element of his painting. "The vibrant note, such is indeed the goal that Nattero wants to achieve: to this, he is not afraid to sacrifice the precise line.
He admirably gives the impression of a teeming crowd on our sunny quays, in our old picturesque streets with skillfully applied impasto."

Marseille:
Student, May 1905 He knows perfectly the secret of pure colors and it is with precision that he places a touch of red on a fisherman's cap or a touch of white on the rebound of a wave.
His palette evolves in shades of blue, mauve, pink, pearly nuances, warm ochre on the twilights; the breaking waves passing from metallic emerald to the lightest, milkiest green ashes.
He forgets black.

Works:
La Patache in the port of Toulon, oil on canvas, 46 × 61 cm, 1902-1905, Toulon Art Museum.