Raphaël Ponson (1835-1904) Capstan By The Sea

Nice painting by the Provençal master Rapahaël Ponson representing a seaside animated by fishermen and a Capestan (which was used to pull the boats and the pointed boats ashore).
The work, an oil on canvas mounted by the artist on cardboard, is framed in a modern frame which suits it well and which measures 48 cm by 64 cm and 28.5 cm by 46 cm without the frame. it is signed lower left and countersigned and titled on the back.
Renowned for his landscapes of the Provençal coast, Raphaël Ponson is the son of a theater designer who taught him the basics of painting. Then he took lessons at the practical drawing school in Marseille where he studied with Émile Loubon, who taught him to paint landscapes while respecting the local tone. He went to Paris in 1855 and 1856, then to Italy where he completed his training. He then settled permanently in Marseille. He made his debut at the Salon de Marseille in 1852, and at the Salon de Paris in 1861 with La Châtaigneraie near Chevreuse and Le Château d´If in the harbor of Marseille.
Works
In 1863, he decorated the gallery of private apartments in the new prefecture of Marseille. For the decoration of the rooms on the first floor of the Natural History Museum of the Palais Longchamp, Henri-Jacques Espérandieu called on Raphaël Ponson whose flexible and brilliant talent would be perfectly suited to the execution of this work according to the words of the architect during the presentation of the letter of submission to the municipal council 1. In 1867, he decorated the three rooms on the first floor where he painted spectacular natural sites: Niagara Falls, Sea of ​​Ice, Amazonian rainforest and the basalt caves of Fingal in one of the Hebrides Islands. The most famous room is that of Provence, where Ponson represents different landscapes for each of the small regions of Provence: cork oaks, chestnuts and strawberry trees for the Var, olive trees and oleanders for the Bouches-du-Rhône, and mulberry trees, almond trees and melons for Vaucluse 2. He also decorates the Rigaud3 café and the Plauchut pastry shop at the top of La Canebière in Marseille.
He specializes in the representation of the beaches, creeks and sea shores around Marseille. To distinguish himself from his younger brother, Étienne Aimé Ponson, painter of still lifes, he added his first name to his surname. Present in many regional exhibitions, it obtains several awards.

Works in public collections


Works in public collections

Aix-en-Provence, Granet museum: Gulf of Bandol.
Avignon, Musée Calvet: Anse de la Couronne near Martigues.
Béziers, Museum of Fine Arts:
Calanque de Port Pin near Cassis;
Evening at the Gulf of Bandol.
Carcassonne, Musée des Beaux-Arts: Seaside in Bandol.
Cassis, Mediterranean municipal museum: Italian brick in the port of Cassis.
Digne-les-Bains, Gassendi museum: The Calanque de Sormiou.
Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts: Le Château’If: morning effect 5.
Hyères: Coastline in Hyères.

Rue de la République, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture hotel.
Marseilles:
Museum of Fine Arts:
Morning at Sausset;
Cotes de Sormiou;
Marine.
Musée de la Marine: Coal ships in the national basin, 1890.
Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture hotel, private apartments: four circular paintings, ordered on 23 May 1866 by the prefect Charlemagne de Maupas to decorate a gallery of his apartments, representing districts of Marseille:
The Palais Longchamp;
The Rue de la République;
Parc Borély;
The Pharo.
Narbonne, Museum of Art and History:
View of Endoume;
Nest of gulls at the cove of Port-Miou.
Toulon, Art museum: Undergrowth in Sainte-Marguerite.
Tours, Musée des Beaux-Arts: Rochers à Cassis.