Delavallée - Oil C.1890 - Pont Aven - Wheat Thresher

A characteristic theme of the Pont-Aven school, threshing wheat with a flail was notably represented around 1890 by Henry MORET, Paul SÉRUSIER and Henri DELAVALLÉE.

In addition to a pastel, we know of two oils by the latter illustrating wheat threshers, one now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper, the second, measuring 50 x 65 cms, having been sold for around 25,000 euros by Artcurial on December 8, 2015 (lot 104).

I would like to point out that although this oil was announced by the 1892 auction house, DELAVALLÉE's recent catalogue raisonné dates it to 1886-1887.

We quite logically believe that our painting constitutes the preparatory work for the latter; we can also see underlying pencil lines, some pentimenti (the angle of the flail has been modified, for example), a fairly fluid material allowing a certain speed of execution and visible reserves.
Although the framing is identical, we note numerous differences with the canvas sold by Artcurial, starting with the addition of two threshers and the shift to the right of the initial thresher. The top of the central tree has also been removed to allow perfect visibility of the flail raised by the peasant woman (see comparative photo), an important detail that allows us to understand the modifications and improvements that would have been made by Henri DELAVALLÉE.
The colours used (blue-green of the trees, for example) and the use of parallel touches make us think of the pastels made by the artist at this period (Cf The Farm of 1886).

A rare and superb subject for lovers of the Pont-Aven school or Breton paintings !

BIOGRAPHY:
A brilliant student, Henri Delavallée enrolled at the Sorbonne as well as at the École des Beaux-Arts where he was a student of Carolus-Duran and Luc-Olivier Merson. In 1881, he came to Pont-Aven and stayed there regularly in the following years, meeting Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard in 1886. He went to Bourron-Marlotte in 1887, working with Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat and in 1889 to the hamlet of Landemer, in Gréville, the birthplace of Jean-François Millet.
He then painted Divisionist and Pointillist paintings. He returned to Pont-Aven in 1894, settling into the Hotel Julia, owned by Julia Guillou (1848-1927) but, attracted by exoticism, he left with his wife for Constantinople, only returning to France in 1901, living until 1910 sometimes in Paris, sometimes in Apremont and sometimes in Pont-Aven where the couple settled permanently from 1910. He died in Pont-Aven in 1943.

His works are present in several museums: Museum of Fine Arts of Brest, Breton Departmental Museum, Quimper Museum...

PROVENANCE:
Château du Bois de la Motte, Pleslin-Trigavou (Côtes d'Armor), former collection of Maître Daniel OFFRET, auctioneer at Drouot in the 80s-90s

Oil on cardboard

27 x 32 cms (with frame, approximately 43 x 48 cms)

Unsigned

Good general condition, work has just been completely cleaned, the small defects present (slight lacks in the sky at the top left, marks of friction from an old frame...) have deliberately not been retouched to keep the painting in its original state

Photos taken in sunlight

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