Octave Guillonnet

The Ball - Post Impressionist Oil, Figures in Interior by Octave Guillonnet

c.1910

Signed figures in interior oil on canvas circa 1910 by sought after French impressionist painter Edouard Leon Cortes. This charming and nostalgic work depicts a family enjoying dinner in a typical Breton kitchen scene. A man and lady are seated at the table while a woman serves them from a steaming pot. The light of an overhead oil burner illuminates the room. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 26"x23" Unframed: 18"x15" Provenance: This work will be included in the supplement to Tome III of the Catalgue Raisonne of Edouard Cortes under preparation by Mme. Nicole Verdier This work is accompanied by a photo certificate from Mme. Nicole Verdier under reference EC221203/HT/GEO-241 Edouard Leon Cortes, the son of the painter Antonio Cortès, was sent to the front during World War I to sketch enemy positions. In civilian life, his base was in Lagny in the former studio of Cavallo-Peduzzi. Although he travelled extensively in France. Notably in Normandy, Brittany, the Champagne region and Savoy painting...

Signed impressionist figurative oil on canvas circa 1890 by sought after French impressionist painter Jean Louis Forain. The piece depicts bathers in a dark landscape. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 32"x37" Unframed: 24"x29" Provenance: Private French collection Jean Forain was the son of a painter and decorator and was apprenticed to a visiting card engraver. He studied briefly under Gérôme and Carpeaux at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and regularly visited the Louvre, where he copied works by the masters. It is said that for a time he made a precarious living by selling small drawings in the style of Grévin. He went on to collaborate on various publications as a draughtsman and columnist, starting in 1876 on La Cravache and then collaborating on the newspapers Le Journal Amusant, Le Figaro and L'Écho de Paris. This introduced him to the diverse worlds of Paris society - the world of the theatre, of shows, and of literature - where he wryly noted the habits and shortcomings particular to each. This led him to follow a route very characteristic of this period, already seen in the work of Steinlen, Caran d'Ache and Toulouse-Lautrec in the journals La Pléiade, La Vogue...