I am delighted to be able to offer you a superb, autumnal oil on canvas, depicting riders in the wood, one of the artist's favourite subjects. Elegantly and subtlly coloured and painted with virtuosity, it is a wonderful example of the artist's work.
Jules René Hervé was born in Langres in the Haute-Marne region of France, where he first began to train as an artist – initially with his uncle, Jules Alfred Hervé. He attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1908, and then the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; he also studied at the Atelier Cormon, where earlier students had included Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. He first exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1910, at the age of 23. He was awarded a médaille d’argent at the Salon in 1914, and a médaille d’or in 1925; in 1937 he received another médaille d’or at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Not only Vice-President of the Salon; he also served on the selection committee.
His work can be found in many private collections, and in those of museums in France and in the US.
Our painting measures 33 x 41 cm, dates from the 1950s and is signed to the lower left. It is signed again on the verso, as was the artist's habit. Well framed, the overall framed size is 53 x 61 cm.