Legout Gerard French School Painting Breton XIXth Market In Concarneau Oil Canvas Signed

LEGOUT-GERARD Fernand ( 1856 / 1924 )
Scène of market.
Oil on canvas signed lower left.
15 x 22 in
Certificat of authenticity.
Musées : Paris ( Musée du Petit Palais )
Fernand Le Gout-Gerard was born in Saint-Lo in the department of La Manche on October 29, 1854, and spent his entire childhood there. At a very young age he was fascinated with drawing and painting, and by the age of 14 was copying works of the lesser masters of the 18th century.His grandfather first influenced him as an artist but he obliged his father and became a general financial agent of the Treasury of La Manche, then as a bank director. As a bank director, Fernand continued to persevere as a painter, working without respite and regularly frequenting the art world of Paris in the 1880-90ís where he had taken up residence. His efforts were quickly rewarded for he met Meissonnier, then at the height of his fame, who encouraged him; it is to Meissonier that he owes his first important prize during the Universal Exhibit of 1889. It was through the masterís son that he discovered Concarneau, and Le Gout-Gerard felt an immediate attraction for this port where, since the beginning of the 19th century, a colony of artists would pass through and sometime stay, finding in Concarneau a source of inspiration. For over 40 years, the artist would return regularly to Concarneau, even taking up residence in 1903. Upon the death of his parents, Fernand Le Gout-Gerard, freed form family pressure, devoted him entirely to painting, giving up his career as a banker. In 1903, he purchased villa Ker-Moor in Carcarneau, which he enlarged so that he could set up his studio. Very quickly Le Gout-Gerardís house became the meeting place for all the artists passing through. Le Gout-Gerard along with the entire artistsí colony of the port would demonstrate their fondness for this small city in 1899, when the prospect of demolishing the ramparts of the walled city was raised. They signed a petition that Fernand Le Gout-Gerard would submit personally to the Secretary of State for the Arts, an old school friend from Saint-Lo. He was named painter to the Ministry of the Marine and founded the "Society of the Blue Nets" of Concarneau, in 1905, which he was elected president.
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