Leighton Fine Art Ltd Landscape Paintings

Signed oil on panel seascape circa 1920 by French post impressionist painter Adolphe Louis Gaussen. The work depicts a view of waves cascading against a rocky shore. A sail boat is s...

Signed seascape oil on panel circa 1910 by French painter post impressionist painter Adolphe Louis Gaussen. The work depicts a view of the bright blue sea from a rocky shoreline on t...

Signed impressionist gouache on paper figures in landscape circa 1910 by French painter Eugene Galien-Laloue. The piece depicts a street scene at the Quai de la Tournelle...

Signed post impressionist landscape oil on panel by popular French painter Georges D'Espagnat. The piece depicts the beach at Belle Ile, an island off the coast of Brittany in France, at sunset. An exceptional early painting by D'Espagnat which shows the precursor influence of Fauvism which was to dominate his paintings in the following few years. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 23"x26" Unframed: 15"x18" Provenance: Private French collection A certificate of authenticity from Mr. Jean-Dominique Jacquemond is available upon request. This work will be included in the catalogue raisonne of Georges D'Espagnat under preparation by Mr. Jacquemond From the beginning of his career, it was a constant concern of Georges d'Espagnet to assert his originality. His studies at the École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, did not last very long, for he wanted immediate independence and decided to follow courses in the private academies of Montparnasse. In about 1900, he became acquainted with Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard, and his collaboration with Denis led to a renewal of religious art in France. In 1903, d'Espagnet was one of the founders of the Salon d'Automne, and was appointed professor in charge of studios at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1934. He illustrated a number of books: Rémy de Gourmont's Evil Prayers ( Oraisons mauvaises) (1896), The Saints of Paradise ( Les Saintes du paradis) (1898), Simone (1907), Sistine ( Sixtine) (1922); Alphonse Daudet's The Immortal ( L'Immortel) (1930); André Gide's The Pastoral Symphony ( La Symphonie pastorale); Francis Jammes' Clearings in the Sky ( Chairières dans le ciel) (1948). D'Espagnet belongs to the group of artists who made the Courrier Français so successful. The drawings of his which are published in it are strongly expressive and some bear comparison with the designs of the great Renaissance masters. He also contributed to L'Image. He often placed cheerful nudes in a landscape, reminding us that, though he moved away from the Fauves, he retained their freedom of colour and arabesque. He painted many portraits, including those of Albert André, André Barbier, Victor Boucher, Déodat de Séverac, Albert Marque, André Marty and Albert Roussel. He also painted mural decorations, including a wall for the Palais de la Découverte (1937), the ceiling of the Victor Hugo Room in the Palais du Luxembourg (1939), a decorative panel for the Palais de Justice, Toulouse (1941) and interior decorations for private houses. His landscapes are Impressionist in inspiration, and work for a certain sobriety, an intimacy, both in their composition - one, two or three sketched figures and large open spaces - and in the choice of colours and treatment with the special hazy brushstroke that marks his style. D'Espagnet took part in a number of annual Parisian exhibitions, including the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon d'Automne (from 1903 to 1949, except in special circumstances), the Salon de la Libre Ésthétique, Brussels (1899, 1901), the Berlin Secessionists (1940). He also exhibited at the first Salon de la Société de la Gravure sur Bois. Among other exhibitions were 1912, A Century of French Art ( Centenaire de l'art français), St Petersburg; 1916, Kunstverein, Winterthur; 1918, 1926, Galerie M. Bertheim, Paris; 1930, Contemporary French Art...

Signed impressionist oil on canvas landscape circa 1950 by sought after French painter Edouard Cortes. The work depicts an evening scene of the Place de la Republique square in Paris France. The ground, bare trees and buildings are covered in a dusting of white snow. The street lights are glowing and the Monument a la Republique is visible in the distance. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 19"x24" Unframed: 13"x18" Provenance: International Galleries - Chicago c. 1950 This work is included in the Catalogue Raisonne of the painters work "Edouard Cortes (1882-1969) : The Complete Works" Ref: EC001317 A photo certificate of authenticity accompanies the painting 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 figures in landscape oil on canvas circa 1920 by French post impressionist painter Lucien Adrion. The painting depicts people going about their daily lives on the streets of Paris, France on a sunny spring day with trams travelling along the boulevards. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 33"x39" Unframed: 26"x32" Provenance: Galerie Vildrac - Paris (labels verso) Lucien Adrion was born May 25, 1889 in Strasbourg, France. He was was a French Post-Impressionist painter, draftsman, and printmaker known for his depictions of the French countryside and beaches, as well as Parisian life including landscape, still life, figure and landmark paintings. He began his initial studies in Strasbourg as a technical draughtsman. In 1907, at the age of eighteen, he left his hometown Strasbourg and traveled to Paris, where he found employment in a large drafting company to work as a fashion illustrator. Adrion changed his mind upon arrival and rather than working for a large company, he decided to peruse his artistic career by traveling to London, Munich and Frankfurt. As the World War broke out he had to go to Berlin, where he studied as an engraver with Hermann Struck, who was also the teacher of Marc Chagall. He remained in Berlin until the war ended and after the demobilization, Lucien would study engraving under Franz Ritter von Struck...

Signed figure in landscape oil on board circa 1910 by French Post-Impressionist painter Victor Charreton. The piece depicts a lone figure taking a walk beside a stream in a wooded ar...

Signed figure in landscape oil on board circa 1920 by sought after French Post-Impressionist painter Victor Charreton. The piece depicts a lone figure walking through a wooded area i...

Signed and dated figurative oil on canvas by English Pre-Raphaelite painter John Edward Brett. In 1896 John Brett and his wife Mary went to Paris, the first time the artist had been ...

Signed oil on canvas animals in landscape by French expressionist painter Andre Brasilier. The piece depicts goats and birds in front of green trees with a blue sea beyond. This earl...

Signed impressionist landscape oil on canvas circa 1920 by French painter Antoine Bouvard Snr. The work depicts a figure rowing on a gondola beside buildings lining the canal at the ...

Signed and dated oil on canvas seascape by French impressionist painter Emilio Boggio. The piece in a view of the vast, open ocean - a rich blue sea with white ocean foam leading to ...

A beautiful oil on panel circa 1900 by French impressionist painter Emilio Boggio. The piece depicts a coastal scene. The blue-green water crashes against the rocks on a grey day. S...

Stunning oil on canvas circa 1955 by American impressionist painter Johann Henrik Carl Berthelsen. The piece depicts a view of the illuminated waterfront buildings from the East Rive...

Signed post impressionist landscape oil on panel by French painter Henri le Sidaner. The work depicts a nighttime view of the bay at Saint Servan, Brittany in the north of France. Th...

Signed and dated oil on canvas by French impressionist painter Charles Theophile Angrand. This wonderful and good-sized piece depicts an artist painting "en plain air" in a beautiful...

Signed impressionist landscape oil on canvas circa 1930 by French painter Antoine Bouvard Snr. The work depicts a gondolier sailing a gondola on a Venetian Canal. The last light of t...

Signed oil on panel landscape circa 1940 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The work depicts a man fishing on the bank of the River Seine in France on a c...

An outstanding example of the new-impressionist work of Rodolphe Wytsman . This large canvas depicts a tranquil summer day on the Meuse river near the town of Dave. Wytsman painted a number of landscapes in this area between 1910 and 1911 at the height of his artistic career. The use of colour and neo-impressionist execution are testament to his position as one of the finest Belgian painters of this period alongside Van Rysselberghe, Claus, Montigny and Georges Morren...

Signed symbolist oil on panel circa 1910 by French Les Nabis painter Ker-Xavier Roussel. This beautiful painting depicts nudes and figures dressed in robes in a wooded landscape. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 31"x40" Unframed: 23"x32" Provenance: JPL Fine Arts - London c. 1985 Ker-Xavier Roussel met Édouard Vuillard at the Lycée Condorcet, which they both attended. Together they visited Eugène Ulysse Napoléon Maillard's studio, where Roussel became acquainted with Charles Cottet, going on to study at the Académie Julian under Bouguereau and Jules Lefebvre. There, he became interested in the Synthetism promoted by Sérusier, following Sérusier's heeding of the line Gauguin had adopted in Pont-Aven. He joined the Nabis group. He and his friends form a link between the Impressionists - he knew Cézanne, Degas, Renoir and Monet - and the Fauves and Cubists. In his earliest paintings, Roussel adopted a dark palette for Realist still-lifes. Later, his work bore the influence of Gauguin, Sérusier, the Nabis and Cézanne, in Intimist scenes painted in flat tints not yet clearly delineated. Their dull, saturated tones are reminiscent of Cézanne. In about 1900 he started painting mythological scenes full of nymphs and fauns and set in his home region of Île-de-France. After a bicycle trip in Provence with Maurice Denis, during which he met Cézanne, he lightened his palette, much taken by the cloudless skies below which he would now set the mythological and idyllic compositions which link him to Poussin and Corot. This wondrous, unreal world found its way into large-scale works, including the stage curtain of the Champs-Élysées theatre in 1913, a large Pax Nutrix for the Palais des Nations in Geneva and Dance for the Palais de Chaillot in 1937. He is best remembered for: Silenius' Triumph, Polyphemus, Diana, The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus. The nymphs and fauns of a mythology quite his own appear in clearings and woods from the outskirts of Paris, but the sun they rejoice in is Mediterranean. To capture the vibration of bright colours under a permanent sun, he later turned to pastels. He was more a Symbolist than a Nabi and signed himself K.-X. Roussel. He also produced lithographs. He took part in exhibitions from 1891 with the Groupe des Vingt at le Barc de Bouteville's gallery in Brussels. Then he exhibited in Revue Blanche Painters ( Les Peintres de la revue blanche) in Paris; with the Nabis at Café Volponi in Paris; before World War I with Free Aesthetics in Brussels; from 1901 at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne; in the 1930s in Revue Blanche Painters ( Les Peintres de la Revue blanche) hosted in Paris by designer Bolette Natanson, the daughter of the Revue Blanche's owner. He took part in The Masters of Contemporary Art ( Les Maîtres de l'art contemporain) at the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris, and at the 1938 Venice Biennale and 1939 New York World Fair. He featured posthumously in Toulouse-Lautrec and the Nabis ( Toulouse-Lautrec et les Nabis) at Bern Kunsthalle; From the Revue Blanche ( Autour de la revue blanche) in the Galerie Maeght, Paris, and in Tokyo and Brussels. He had one-man shows in Paris before his death in 1944. Retrospectives were mounted in the 1960s in London and Bremen. Museum and Gallery Holdings: Geneva (Petit Palais): Haystacks on the Seaside Paris (BNF): Training the Dog; Landscapes (engraving); Nymph and Faun (c. 1895, etching) Paris (Louvre): Poject for a Screen (drawing) Paris (MNAM-CCI): The Road (c. 1905); The Cyclops (1908); Venus and Cupid on the Seafront (1908); The Abduction of Leucippus' Daughters (1911); Pastorale (1920); Diana at Rest (1923); Portrait of Vuillard (1934) Paris (Mus. d'Orsay): The Gate (pastel); Woman in Profile with Green Hat; In Bed; Félix Valloton...

Signed and titled figures in cityscape oil on panel circa 1920 by American impressionist painter Guy Carleton Wiggins. This wonderful piece depicts a view of the New York Public Library in the United States of America during a winter snowstorm. Several cars and pedestrians can be seen passing along Fifth Avenue. A fantastic work in the artist's distinctive style. Dimensions: Framed: 16"x18" Unframed: 8"x10" Provenance: Roughton Galleries - Texas. This work is included in the catalogue raisonne under reference number GW00179 Guy Carleton Wiggins was the son of Carleton Wiggins, a painter of landscapes and animals. Wiggins first studied at his father's Art School in Connecticut and later enrolled in the National Academy of Design where he trained with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, after a brief spell studying architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn. At the age of 20 he was already well known and was the youngest American artist to have a work accepted for the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Prior to the onset of World War I, Wiggins travelled to Europe and painted the English countryside. In England he met his future wife Dorothy Stuart Johnson. The couple returned to the US and set up home in Connecticut. He established a year-round art school, the Guy Wiggins Art School, in Essex. He liked to spend his winters in New York and summers in Connecticut. Wiggins' paintings reflect the influence of American Impressionism, a style of painting he would have encountered during his summers in Old Lyme. He is known for his snowy New York...

Signed and dated oil on canvas landscape by French post impressionist painter Paul Madeline. This beautiful work depicts the Tournant bridge over the River Arques at the seaport in D...

Signed figures in landscape circa 1950 by French impressionist painter Eduoard Cortes. The work depicts a view of La Madaleine, a Catholic parish church situated on Place de la Madel...

Signed and dated symbolist figure in landscape oil on board by French painter Alphonse Osbert. The piece depicts a blonde woman in a full length purple...

Signed and dated divisionist landscape oil on canvas by Belgian post impressionist painter Modest Huys. This stunning piece is titled "Radiant Autumn - Wak...

Signed and titled oil on panel figures in landscape circa 1920 by French impressionist painter Andre Devambez. The piece depicts couples and families en...

Signed and titled cubist oil on canvas circa 1980 by French painter Camille Hilaire. This wonderful and colourful piece depicts a gondola on the Grand Canal, Venice with old palace behind. Signature: Signed lower right and titled verso Dimensions: Framed size: 21"x24" (53.3cm x 61.0cm) Size: 15"x18" (38.1cm x 45.7cm) Provenance: Private French collection Camille Hilaire was a pupil at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He also worked in the free academies, including that of André Lhote, whose teaching had a major influence on his work. He executed numerous mural decorations...

Signed figures in landscape oil on canvas circa 1940 by sought after French post impressionist painter Marcel Dyf. The piece depicts people enjoying a sunny winter's day at the port ...

Signed and dated oil on original canvas by French post impressionist painter Paul Madeline. This beautiful work depicts a mill on the bank of a river - water cascading over the rocks...

Beautiful signed oil on board landscape circa 1920 by sought after post impressionist painter Victor Charreton. The piece depicts a figure walking through green rolling fields with h...

Signed and dated impressionist landscape oil on canvas by French painter Jean Baptiste Armand Guillaumin. This simply stunning piece de...

Fauvist signed oil on canvas riverscape circa 1920 by French post impressionist painter Robert Antoine Pinchon. The work depicts a view of the R...

Stunning pointillist landscape oil on panel by French neo-impressionist painter Achille Lauge. The work depicts a path leading to the small village of Belveze du Razes in the South of France on a bright spring day. To the left are white blossom trees in bloom and the houses of the village can be seen in the distance. Signature: Signed and dated 1909 lower left Dimensions: Framed: 28"x36" Unframed: 21"x29" Provenance: We kindly thank Mme. Nicole Tamburini for allowing us to state that the work is included in the Catalogue Raisonne of the artist which she is currently preparing. A certificate of authenticity from Mme. Tamburini is available upon request. Achille Laugé...

Impressionist oil on canvas seascape painting circa 1895 by French artist Maxime Maufra. This stunning work depicts a sailing boat on a vast ocean. The choppy water is painted in greens and blues. The white clouds rolling across the blue sky are beautifully shaded in purple tones. Signature: Signed lower left and titled on original label verso Dimensions: Framed: 22"x25" Unframed: 15"x18" Provenance: This work is included in the catalogue raisonne of Maxime Maufra under reference 284 Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired directly from the artist on 5 April 1895) Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (acquired from the above in 1895) Marlborough Fine Arts, Ltd., London (acquired after 1949) Dr. Renate Davis, London (acquired from the above) Lyon & Turnbull London, 28 November 2013, lot 111 (consigned by the above) Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above sale) Sotheby's New York, 15 November 2017, lot 101 (consigned by the above) Maufra spent several years in England, notably in Liverpool, with his father, who wanted him to become a tradesman. He decided to take up painting instead and returned to France in 1883, attracting the attention of Octave Mirbeau in his very first exhibition, and subsequently being noticed by Frantz Jourdain in 1894 and Fontenais in 1901. In 1886, he successfully exhibited two seascapes at the Salon, following which he visited Brittany in 1890, making the acquaintance of Gauguin and Sérusier in Pont-Aven; he collaborated with them on the decoration of the Pouldu Inn in 1894. He maintained his acquaintance with the Nabis group artists Henry Moret and Gustave Loiseau. He travelled in l'Isère, Belgium, and Algeria (1913), as well as Paris, the Ile de France, Brittany and Normandy. From 1895, the Galerie Durand-Ruel assured the success of his work. Maufra settled in Montmartre for about ten years during which he painted the old quarters of Paris, often around the church of St Séverin. He then turned to Brittany and Normandy for inspiration in keeping with a resolve to paint only from nature, his seascapes in particular finding favour. The influence of the Nabis on his work remains limited except in the 'synthetic' organisation of the composition. He was an admirer of Sisley and Pissarro, whose influence can be seen in his paintings. Maufra, like Valtat, went to some extent beyond Impressionism to become a forerunner of Fauvism in his use of colour. An important retrospective exhibition of Maufra's work, prefaced by René Domergue, was organised in Paris around 1950. In 2001, his work was represented in the exhibition Painters and the Sarthe Region ( Les Peintres et la Sarthe) held at the Musée de la Reine Bérengère (for the 19th century) and the Abbaye de l'Épau (for the 20th century) at Le Mans. In 2003, his work appeared in the group exhibition Brittany, Land of Painters ( Bretagne, Terre des Peintres) at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Vannes. Museum and Gallery Holdings: Bergues: Seascapes Boston: Dusk in Douarnenez; Departure of Fishing Boats Buffalo: Transport Quittant Le Havre Chicago: Douarnenez the Town of Light Cholet: Flood Cincinnati (AM): The Coast, Bay of Douarnenez (Vue de Douarnenez) (painting) Helsinki: St-Guénolé Le Havre: Moonrise in Brittany Manchester: Springtime in Lavardin Montpellier: Hills of Morgat Mulhouse: Low Tide Nantes (MBA): La Prairie d'Amont (1888, oil on canvas); Pointe du Raz; Heavy Swell; The Loir Dam in Poncé (oil on canvas) Paris (Mus. d'Orsay): Brittany Landscape...

Stunning signed post impressionist oil on panel circa 1920 by French painter Emile Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet. The work depicts a summer garden filled with vibrant flowers in reds, pinks, yellows and whites, with green lawn and trees beyond. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 28"x32" Unframed: 20"x24" Provenance: Private US collection Émile Guillonnet was a student of Lionel...

Stunning signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1950 by French cubist painter Camile Hilaire. The piece beautifully depicts trees reflecting in the water of a river. The painting is pa...

Landscape oil on panel circa 1890 by French Post Impressionist painter Louis Hayet. The cityscape depicts elegant figures and horses and carts in Les Grands Boulevards in Paris, France. Signature: Signed lower right and titled verso Dimensions: Framed: 12.25"x15.5" Provenance: The collection of Andre Metthey...

Impressionist garden landscape oil on panel painting circa 1902 by French painter Marie Duhem. The work depicts a white ornate planter in the centre of ...

Wonderful figures in night landscape oil on canvas circa 1904 by French impressionist painter and illustrator Andre Devambez. The piece depicts demonstr...

Wonderful oil on panel circa 1920 by French impressionist painter Andre Devambez. The work depicts a soldier leading his horse along a dirt track during...

Large signed landscape oil on canvas circa 1920 by sought after French post impressionist painter Victor Charreton, who was known as the painter of colours. The work depicts a woman walking through a snowy village in winter. The piece is beautifully coloured. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 33"x38" Unframed: 24"x29" Provenance: Private collection - Portugal Ader - Paris Charreton was a landscape artist in the Lyons tradition with a love of sensual impasto. In his works he seeks to capture fleeting, momentary effects, like those achieved by the Impressionists: effects at different times of day and in different seasons, such as dusk and snow. As a young man he painted the environs of Bourgoin. Skilled in capturing minute changes in the weather, he was also adept at capturing the spirit of new places. Beside his native Dauphiné and his adopted Auvergne, he was also charmed by the landscapes of the Île-de-France and Paris - Montmartre, the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Parc Montsouris...

Signed figures in a landscape oil on canvas circa 1870 by French impressionist painter Victor Alfred Paul Vignon. The work depicts a woman carrying a basket with a young child beside her walking along a snowy path in a Fontainebleau Forest. This early work by Vignon was painted whilst he was under the tutelage of Camille Corot in the period between 1869 and 1870 . The work shows a mother and child in the forest at Fontainebleau in winter. Many painters in Vignon's circle such as Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Bazille visited this area to paint in the late 1860's and the early 1870's. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 23"x25.5" Unframed: 13.5"x16" Provenance: Galerie Commeter - Hamburg c. 1920 French exhibition customs stamps verso His mother has been incorrectly identified as the writer Claude Vignon...

A wonderful oil on paper laid on canvas circa 1905 by French neo-impressionist painter Theo Van Rysselberghe depicting a climbing rose - the pink of the flowers contrasting against the green and yellow of the leaves. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 23"x23" Unframed: 17"x17" Provenance: This work is included in the Catalogue Raisonne of Theo van Rysselberghe by Ronald Feltkamp under the reference P-032 Sotheby's, New York, November 5, 1969, lot 83 Christie's, Amsterdam, June 9, 2004, lot 87, Lancz Gallery, Brussels, Private collection, United Kingdom Exhibition: Le Lavandou...

A stunning oil on canvas urban landscape by sought after French post-impressionist painter Jacques Martin-Ferrieres. The piece depicts a very rare view of the Manhattan skyline - pai...

A wonderful oil on canvas circa 1908 by French post impressionist painter Henri Liénard de Saint-Délis depicting a boat docked at the harbour in the harb...

A charming oil on board circa 1910 by sought after Post-Impressionist painter Victor Charreton. Charreton was said to be the painter of colours and this piece, which depicts an allot...

Signed and dated figures in seascape oil on panel by Belgian impressionist painter Alfred Emile Leopold Stevens. The work depicts an elega...

An exceptional oil on canvas circa 1910 by French Impressionist painter Pierre Eugène Montezin depicting figures and a horse & cart on a bridge over the river. Beautifully painted an...

THIS WORK IS CURRENTLY ON LOAN TO THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN LE HAVRE AND IS BEING EXHIBITED IN THEIR ELECTRIC NIGHTS EXHIBITION 2020 A stunning oil on original canvas by Achile-Emile Othon Friesz depicting a night time view of the Pont Neuf bridge over the Seine, Paris. The painting shows deep blues and reds - richer than those of traditional impressionist paintings - and shows the transition into Fauvism. Signed and dated 1903 lower right. Framed dimensions are 24.5 inches high by 20 inches wide. Achille Friesz was the son of a family of sailors from Le Havre. From 1885 he often spent time in Marseilles visiting his maternal uncles. As a child he dreamed of going to sea, but from the age of 12 he developed a passion for art, and after secondary school he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre. There, from 1896 to 1898, he studied under Charles-Marie Lhullier who had been a friend of Jongkind and whom, like Dufy and Braque, he remembered fondly throughout his life. Lhullier introduced his students to the work of Chardin, Corot, Géricault and Delacroix. After receiving a bursary from the local authorities in 1898, he went to Paris and, while his friends Matisse, Rouault and Marquet studied under Gustave Moreau, enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts at the studio of Léon Bonnat, where he was joined by Dufy. However, he scarcely attended the studio, preferring to go to the Louvre and make copies of the works of Clouet, Veronese, Rubens, Claude Lorraine and Delacroix. He did his military service in Paris in 1902 but continued with his art. Around this time he met Camille Pissarro and sought his advice. As a young man he began to make frequent trips away, not necessarily travelling very far, but looking for subjects for his work, usually landscapes. Among the places he visited were the Creuse region around 1903, Antwerp in 1905, returning there with Braque in 1906, and La Ciotat, Cassis and L'Estaque in 1906-1907, again in the company of Braque. In Paris he frequently moved lodgings until 1914. He moved in with Henri Matisse at the Couvent des Oiseaux from 1905-1910, that is to say at the period when Fauvism was at its height. In 1908 he returned to his native Normandy to reimmerse himself in his early environment; he would return to the region throughout his life. He made a trip to Munich with Dufy in 1909, and visited Portugal in 1911-1912 and Belgium in 1912. In 1914 he was called up and assigned to technical services, not being demobilised until March 1919, although he did manage to maintain a certain independence. From 1914 until his death he lived in Paris at 73 Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, where he occupied Bouguereau's old studio. He made frequent trips to Cap-Brun near Toulon where, in 1923, he acquired a property called Les Jarres, as well as making numerous visits to Normandy and Le Havre. In 1925 he received the highest commendation at the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh for Portrait of the Decorative Artist Paul Paquereau. Also in 1925, at the same time as Matisse, he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, rising to in Officier in 1933 and Commandeur in 1937. He was also made Commander of the Swedish order of Vasa in 1934. Throughout his life, Friesz was a teacher: from 1913 at the Académie Moderne; from 1929 at the Académie Scandinave; and from 1941 until his death at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière. Alongside his activity as a painter, he illustrated several works of literature, including: in 1920 Le Pacte de l'Écolier Juan by Jules Tellier; in 1924 Échelles de Soie by Jean Pédron; in 1926 Le Jardin sur l'Oronte by Maurice Barrès; in 1926 En Suivant la Seine by Gustave Coquiot; in 1929 Rouen by André Maurois; in 1931 The Song of Songs; in 1934 Poésies by Pierre de Ronsard; in 1945 Le Bouquet de la Mariée by Gabriel-Joseph Gros; in 1947 Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de St-Pierre; in 1949 Le Livre de Job by Pierre Poussard; in 1949 Petronius's Satyricon, and in 1949 a collection of 12 unpublished lithographs for Le Désert de l'Amour by François Mauriac. He also designed several pieces of decorative art: from 1906 to 1909 ceramics executed by Metthey among others; a façade for a private house in Le Havre; a china service for two for the Le Havre writer J.-G. Aubry; vases, dishes and plates; in 1912 four sets for La Lumière by Georges Duhamel, performed at the Odéon; in 1916 a screen for the Le Havre collector Léon Pédron; in 1918 panels for Pédron's dining room; in 1920 a mural entitled Children Dancing (Enfants Dansant); in 1920 Les Volières for the apartment of Vicomte Amédée de Flers; in 1935 Peace (La Paix), a Gobelins tapestry presented by France to the Palais des Nations in Geneva; in 1937 La Seine in collaboration with Dufy for the Palais de Chaillot, with each artist taking half of the river's course - From the Source to Paris by Friesz and From Paris to the Estuary by Dufy. The Fauves were producing Fauve paintings before they knew it: it was not until the critic Louis Vauxcelles saw their work at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905 and mockingly used the word Fauve to describe it that the term was born. It is known that Vlaminck and Derain worked together and that the École de Chatou was composed of just these two artists. Friesz was living with Matisse and after his first trip to Antwerp in 1905, he returned in 1906 with Braque. In 1906-1907 Friesz and Braque went to La Ciotat to paint and there they met up with Matisse. The paintings Friesz produced in Antwerp are Fauve inasmuch as they are painted in pure colours and are more or less free of the divisionism of the Impressionists, although the draughtsmanship is fairly standard; these works include The Port, The Escaut, The Canals, The Dock with Sailing Ships and The Red Slipway. Those of Braque the following year, in particular Terrace on the Escaut, show great similarities with those Friesz painted of the same subject. Friesz was already avoiding the hardness of pure flat tints by graduating them in thin glazes, allowing the whiteness of the canvas to penetrate the transparency, a technique that came to characterise his entire Fauve period. At La Ciotat Friesz and Braque adopted completely different Fauve styles, with Braque composing his paintings on horizontal and vertical orthogonals painted in small, regular, spaced-out touches, whereas Friesz developed his own personal rhythmical style of wide arabesques of colour in works such as The Bec-de-l'Aigle, Women Bathing and L'Estaque. Many of Friesz's Fauve works were produced in the south of France, and his Portrait of Fernand Fleuret also dates from this period. When he returned to Normandy in 1908 the period that he described as his 'return to form' began; with compromise paintings such as Entrance to the Port of Honfleur, Côte de Grâce Landscape, The 'Bains Marie-Christine' in Le Havre and the great compositions characteristic of this period - Autumn Labours, Spring, Fisherman on a Rock and Women Bathing. His draughtsmanship retains something of the rhythm of the Fauve period, his figures following the lines of the landscape and the colour remaining clear and resonant. In 1909 he painted the Cirque Médrano series: The Trapeze Artist, The Clown and The Horsewoman. In the south of France he also painted the Olive Trees series. He made a trip to Munich with Raoul Dufy resulting in Winter in Munich. This was also the year of his first trip to Italy. Boat in a Rocky Inlet of 1910 marks one of the pivotal points between a totally rhythmic drawing style of sensual curves typical of his Fauve period and a reduced palette of muted ochres, browns and blues. From 1910 onwards, the final traces of Fauvism become less and less apparent in his work. His use of colour follows the same course, towards the transcription of reality, with broken tones, ochres and browns. After his demobilisation, as well as in his studio in Paris, Friesz spent time in his house in Toulon, returned to Normandy and Le Havre and continued to make frequent, often local, forays in search of new subjects: in 1919 to Jura, producing the series Forests, Pine Trees, Road in the Snow and Invitation to Skate; in 1920 to Italy producing Piedmont Village, Florence Grape Pickers; in 1920 to Le Havre, producing The Étretat Cliffs, People Bathing at Étretat; in 1923 to his house in Toulon, producing View of Coudon, Women Bathing, Grape Harvesting, Jars; in 1924 he painted the Large Nude (which he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne the same year) and landscapes of Toulon; in 1928 he made a trip to Algiers, producing The Algiers Kasbah and its Phantoms; in 1931 to Annecy, producing Women Bathers by a Lake; in 1934-1935 to Dinan and St-Malo producing The Great Dinan Viaduct, The Dock with the Terre-Neuvas, After Bathing; in 1936 to Honfleur; in 1941-1944, remaining in Paris because of the war, he painted mainly still-lifes, including Studio Corner, Earthenware. In 1946 he returned to Honfleur; and in 1947 to La Rochelle producing The Port Tower, Tuna Boats, The Red Sail. Numerically Friesz's work is dominated by landscapes but it should be remembered that throughout his career he tackled more ambitious compositions and appeared to do so with great ease. These include Boat in a Rocky Inlet of 1910 with its frolicking women bathers, Allegory of War of 1915 executed in 24 hours, Invitation to Skate of 1919, numerous paintings of Women Bathing over several periods and much later Women beside a Pond of 1944, which clearly demonstrates his attachment to Cézanne. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1901 to 1903 and then at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants. From 1906 he exhibited annually at the Salon d'Automne, of which he later became a committee and jury member. In 1923 he took part in the founding of the Salon des Tuileries and became head of two of the Salon's sections. His work has been exhibited at countless group exhibitions all over the world. Among the most recent thematic exhibitions is Fauvism in Black and White. From Gauguin to Vlaminck, Fauvist Engraving and its Setting (Le Fauvisme en Noir et Blanc. De Gauguin à Vlaminck, l'Estampe des Fauves et son Environnement) at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Villeneuve d'Ascq in 2001. He also showed his work in numerous solo exhibitions in Paris: his first in 1904 at the Galerie des Collectionneurs and another the same year at the Société des Peintres du Paris Moderne...

A wonderful oil on canvas by Louis Hayet depicting figures in a cityscape at evening time. Signed and dated 1932 lower left. Louis Hayet had a difficult and itinerant childhood, due to the instability of his father, an amateur artist. He began to draw and produce watercolours from the age of 12. By the age of 20 he produced works with great skill, as demonstrated by his pen drawing Boulevard, Evening, Paris. He made a living in Paris doing various jobs more or less to do with painting. He associated with Camille and Lucien Pissaro...