Description

HENRI LEBASQUE (French, 1865-1937)

Maisons sur le port à l’ile d’Yeu

1919

oil on canvas

46.3 × 55.2 cm (18¼ x 21¾ in.) signed ‘Lebasque’ (lower right)

POA

PROVENANCE

Stany Oppenheim, Paris (by 1927)

Galerie Georges Petit, Paris

Anonymous sale: Hôtel Drouot Paris, 17 December 1930, lot 98

Anonymous sale: Hôtel Drouot Paris, 12 April 1995, lot 21

Anonymous sale: Hôtel Drouot Paris, 17 June 1996, lot 56

Anonymous sale: Sotheby’s New York, 9 October 1996, lot 42

Ann and Gordon Getty, New York (acquired from the above sale)

EXHIBITED

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Le Nouveau Groupe, 1920

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Henri Lebasque, 1927, no. 37

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Le Nouveau Groupe, 1927

FINE ART

LITERATURE

D. Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque: Catalogue raisonné, Neuilly-sur-Marne, 2008, vol. I, p. 147, no. 455 (illustrated)

NOTES

Christine Lenoir and Maria de la Ville Fromoit have confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Maisons sur le port à l’ile d’Yeu depicts two male figures conversing on a dock in front of several multichromatic sailboats. It is unknown as to which of the island commune’s two ports Lebasque chose to portray in this work, but his inclusion of maritime activity is a nod to Île d’Yeu’s unique geography. Lebasque uses the straight brown masts of the sailboats to create verticality in the composition, drawing the viewer’s eyes upwards. The overarching sky, tinged a dusty rose and hazy blue, is mirrored by the sea beneath it, and the dock is ringed by a halo of light pink. Behind the body of water is a collection of houses clustered together in close proximity. Their removed location serves to add depth to the painting.

Born in Champigné, Lebasque sought to expand his knowledge beyond that of his provincial commune. Following his move to Paris in 1886, Lebasque came into contact with seminal Impressionist painters like Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir who greatly impacted his oeuvre from then on. Friends and critics alike dubbed him “the painter of joy and light,” an epithet befitting Lebasque’s brightly coloured and well-illuminated portraits and landscapes. He would go on to be a founding member of the Salon d’Automne in 1903, designed to be a platform to broaden the dissemination of Impressionism to the general public while also serving as a creative outlet for younger artists. In the Salon d’Automne, Lebasque exhibited alongside Henri Matisse, Albert Gleizes and Jacques Villon. His developing style crystallised when he moved to the French Riviera, and he began painting sunset sails, young women reclining in hammocks, windswept bathers, and scenes of summery luxury.