Julien Saraben (1892-1979) Saint Front Under The Snow Périgueux Dordogne Engraving

Julien SARABEN
(Le Havre 1892 - Périgueux 1979)
Saint Front cathedral under the snow
Burin engraving
H. 26 cm; L. 21.5 cm at the bowl
Signed lower right. Dedicated lower left

Provenance: Collection René Andrieux, Périgord.

Bibliography: The Périgord of painters, Jean-Michel Linfort, Fanlac, 2010, p. 104 reproduced

Son of two artists, the young Julien Saraben began his training in the favorable family universe, then at the School of Fine Arts in Le Havre, his birthplace. Logically, his journey goes up the Seine to reach Paris and the studio of Raphaël Collin, at the Beaux-Arts. On the eve of the great war of 1914, Saraben received his first degree as a drawing teacher, a career that he would begin in 1920. During the war years he was in Eugène Deshayes' studio and worked on numerous sets. theater of all kinds. At the end of the 1920s, the young professor reached Périgord, which he would never leave. He became a drawing teacher at the boys' high school in Périgueux, then in 1931 took charge of the municipal drawing school. Ten years later, the mayor of the city placed Julien Saraben at the head of the Musée du Périgord (current MAAP), of which he was curator until 1958, when he retired to fully devote himself to his art. A great designer, Saraben illustrated many works, many of them engraved with a burin and other series on wood. Eugène Le Roy, Father Georges Rocal and many others passed their texts before the eyes of the engraver who magnified the word and the land of Périgord.

This low-angle view of Saint Front Cathedral is an image that one would see fit perfectly into a Christmas tale located in Périgueux. The dark, cottony sky which has deposited its mass of snow on the domes, stands out against the whitewashed roofs which demarcate it from the old houses of the Rues Neuves. In the foreground rises the famous Old Mill (which is not one), built on the rampart of the city. This building is actually a watch lodge built in 1347 and named "the eschif of Creyschat"