Georges Darnet (1859-1936) Ponds In Corrèze

Georges DARNET
(Périgueux 1859 - 1936)
Ponds in Corrèze
Oil on canvas
H. 38 cm; L. 55 cm
Signed lower left, dated 1919

Provenance: Private collection, Brive la Gaillarde

Georges Darnet was born in Périgueux, to a family of tailors from the banks of the Dordogne around Lalinde by his father and to a family of butchers of the county seat by his mother. He grew up and continued his studies in Périgueux before joining Bordeaux to be a boarder at the School of Fine Arts. We unfortunately do not know the details of his life or his career, but we do know that he will be under the leadership of Louis Auguin, famous painter from Bordeaux representing all the dunes of the Atlantic coast. It is certainly by learning alongside the master that he will opt for works with clear and luminous shades where the color will never take precedence over the fluffy atmosphere.

As soon as he returned to Périgueux after his studies, Georges Darnet became a teacher at the city's drawing school which Jean-Georges Pasquet directed. This painter, who is eight years her senior, will become her faithful friend. They will work side by side on the pattern on their free days.

He was mobilized during the First World War, at the age of 55, and was wounded three times until February 1918, which earned him the Croix de Guerre, without even being demobilized.

He will not however abandon his brushes, and will even present his works at the Salon des Artistes Français of which he was already a member in his youth, and where he will obtain an honorable mention in 1920 and a third medal in 1928.

Fans of Périgord paintings easily recognize the heavy touch of Darnet and particularly its light colors that no other painter working in this region uses. Accustomed to Corrèze where he stays very regularly, Georges Darnet brings back many works from this neighboring department. The region of Égletons is particularly cherished by the painter, where coniferous trees and peat bogs, heather moors and large plateaus mingle.

Our landscape produced in 1919, sold directly to a Corrèze family with another larger work, certainly represents this Haute-Corrèze, near the Monédières mountains.