Jean-louis Daniel (1861-1929) By A Lake Or River Dordogne Corrèze

Jean-Louis DANIEL
(Sorges 1861 - Saint Maur des Fossés 1929)
By a lake or a river
Brush ink on paper
H. 34 cm; L. 43.5 cm at sight
Mention of donation on the back

Provenance: Artist's studio ; Offered by Madame Daniel following the artist's death in 1929 ; Private collections, Périgueux

Raised in Sorges in the north of Périgueux in a family of wealthy farmers, Jean-Louis Daniel devotes himself to drawing from his high school in Périgueux, following the lessons of Jean-Gustave Dose. This taste for the arts will remain in place, despite a career started by the Ponts et Chaussées as an agent, then he became Director of Works of Périgueux. During these years, Daniel befriended Georges Darnet and Jean-Georges Pasquet, and together follow the courses of their common master, Dose. The latter takes them to the banks of the Isle to make picadis, or more removed views of the calm meanders of the river. From 1888, Daniel organized alongside his friends previously mentioned, as well as Bertoletti, Dose and Gérard de Fayolle, the Salon of the Société des Beaux-Arts de la Dordogne, until 1925. He obviously participated in these annual exhibitions by presenting its Perigordian landscapes, like Corrèziens. The Parisian Salon is not to be outdone since the painter exhibited there in 1908 La Combe des bois, acquired at the time by the Museum of Art and Archeology of Périgord. Daniel used the technique of Impressionism very early on and showed us as early as the 1890s, works with vivid touches and almost unreal colors. All in impasto, his compositions mainly reflect the landscapes of the region and are innovative for the time. Jean-Louis Daniel will also devote his life to the preservation of Occitan culture, through his investment in the “Bournat dau Périgord” association which organizes the Félibrée every year. He was one of its creative members in 1903, and subsequently wrote several reference works on the Occitan language.

If Daniel's impressionist canvases are famous, his drawings are practically unknown to the public since they seem to have remained in his studio as studies. Yet they do not lack interest in their construction, in connection with the artist's painting works. This riverside where the lake treated with ink with a brush draws its strength from the tool used and the simple contrast of colors.