Camille LOUVET - Forgerons

Camille LOUVET Lille, 1847 – Angers, 1913 Pastel 26 x 32 cm (32 x 38 cm with frame) Signed lower right “Louvet” Exhibition label on the back at the Society of Friends and Arts of Angers in 1930-31 In the newspaper l'Illustration of October 9, 1897, an article on the School of Arts and Crafts of Angers speaks of its students who "will work under the orders of their elders, at this exhibition of 1900 where our industry is preparing to deliver the good fight, to maintain, to even increase, if possible, the prestige it has won throughout the world. » In Angers there was in fact a School of Arts and Crafts with a foundry, a forge and a fitting workshop. In Angers in 1900 there was the largest automobile construction site in the West of France after the association of the Malinge and Laulan workshops in 1892. Born in Lille but from Angevin by adoption, Camille Louvet was a student of Henri Harpignies. He painted landscapes and genre scenes. The topic here is interesting. This is a real document and a lovely pastel depicting the interior of a forge with blacksmiths (titled on the back on the exhibition label). We can see the inscription Mining bar in the composition and numerous details which show the blacksmiths' profession around 1900.