Lina Bill (1855-1936) Seaside In Provence

Superb and luminous work of the painter Lina Bill (Louis Bonnot) representing a man repairing or building a fishing boat (a pointed one) on a beach, certainly around Saint Cyr sur Mer. The work in very good condition is signed lower left and measures in its pretty Louis XIV style frame 60 cm by 76 cm and 38 cm by 55 cm without the frame. Son of a wealthy shipowner, and little or not attracted by the sea, Louis Bonnot decides to devote his life to painting. Choosing to represent water, the sea, Provence and the Mediterranean, he took the pseudonym of Lina Bill and became a watercolorist, although he also practiced oil painting. Married and having a child, he left his family, his native village and settled in Toulon as a painter and photographer during the 1880s. In 1886, he left Toulon and settled in Avignon. Lina Bill presents himself as a student of Vincent Courdouan and Paul Saïn, with whom he worked in 1887. 1888 will be the year of his first participation in the Salon of French artists where he presents Le Rhône in Avignon. He then lived in Avignon, and more precisely in the district of Monclar. In 1891, he obtained honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français with the Village of Gruissan. In 1894, he left Avignon to go to Marseille where he settled at number 364 rue Paradis. 1895 will see his definitive return to Avignon. He rests in the Saint-Véran cemetery (square 26) in the same town. Works in the public collections Agen Museum of Fine Arts: View of Agde Calvet Museum, Avignon: View of the City of Carcassonne The Village of Gruissan Marine in the vicinity of Banyuls Carcassonne Museum of Fine Arts: Les Martigues Comtadin Museum -Duplessis, Carpentras: "On the beach" Goya Museum, Castres: The Return from Fishing View of Gruissan Municipal Museum of Mont-de-Marsan: Morning in Gruissan Narbonne Museum of Art and History: Entrance to the port of Marseille Paul-Valéry Museum in Sète: Fishing boats - Sète, watercolor Sanary Town Hall: The Port of Sanary Port-Vendres Town Hall: The Port-Vendres Quay French Embassy in Turkey, Istanbul: The Village of Gruissan