Henri Pontoy (1888 - 1968) - Market Scene In Essaouira In Morocco, Circa 1930

Oil on canvas 
Signed lower right
Size: 33 x 41 cm
With frame: 49 x 57 cm


In this orientalist painting by Henri Pontoy, the painter set up his easel in Essaouira, Morocco. He depicts the atmosphere of one of the city's markets. The arches are low and the interior courtyard rectangular; one recognizes the architecture of the historic walled city dating from the late 18th century. The painter uses the arches for an unusual framing.
Henri Pontoy, as usual, illuminates the scene with warm and bright colors; pinks, purples, greens and blues.
He plays with light and shadow and sculpts his creamy material with skill.


Biography

Henri Pontoy is an orientalist painter born in Reims. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the studio of Luc-Olivier Merson.  

He exhibited his paintings at the Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des artistes orientalistes algériens. 

In 1926, he received a travel grant from the Colonial Society of French Artists which allowed him to travel to North Africa, notably to Tunisia where he became a member of the Tunisian Salon. 

The same year, he went to Morocco, which captivated him. He lived in Ouarzazate for several years around 1930 where he met the painter Jacques Majorelle. He became a professor of arts and letters at the Moulay Idriss high school in Fez for 14 years, while regularly exhibiting at the Derche gallery in Casablanca. 

In 1947, Jacques Majorelle proposed to Henry Pontoy to accompany him to Guinea. Together, they travelled through the densely wooded region of Fouta-Djalon. "Majorelle painted nudes and I painted landscapes.

He won the Cameroon prize in 1951. In 1933 he won the Grand Prix of the city of Algiers.

Henry Pontoy favors painting in the open air in a realistic approach. His fresh, airy palette and warm colors, both in oils and watercolors, has always met with great success. 

He is one of the last French representatives of orientalism which reached its peak between the two world wars.
Henry Pontoy lived in Morocco from 1927 to 1965, when he left that country to settle in Aix-en-Provence, where he died in 1968.

Exhibitions

- Oran, January 1925
- Algiers and Tunis,: 1926
- Salon of autumn in Algiers, 1926
- Algiers, 1933, Show of the Algerian orientalist artists
- Algiers, December 1938, Show of the artistic Union of North Africa
- Algiers, January 1947, exhibition miroiterie of art

Bibliography
    
- Bénézit dictionary
- Alfred Rousse, 28th exhibition of Algerian orientalist artists, 1927.
- Stéphane Richemond, Les Salons des artistes coloniaux, Éditions de l'Amateur, 2003
- Gérald Schurr and Pierre Cabanne, Dictionnaire des petits maîtres de la peinture, Éditions de l'Amateur, 2003.
- Élisabeth Cazenave, Les artistes de l'Algérie, dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs 1830-1962, Éditions Bernard Giovanangeli, 2001.