Maurice Courant - Steamers In The Seine Valley

Maurice COURANT (1847-1924)
Steamers in the Seine valley
1906
Oil on canvas
45×54 cm (64×73 cm with frame)
Signed and dated lower left “Maurice Courant 1906”
On the back, stamp of the canvas merchant Moirinat in Paris and an old label marked “244” (?)
Cleaning and rework of old restorations by an approved Museums of France restorer

Originally from Le Havre, Maurice Courant is an artist specializing in seascapes. Like his cousin Lucien Gros, he studied in the workshop of Ernest Meissonnier and settled at the Clos de l'abbaye in Poissy, where he lived until his death. But he looks for patterns on the Normandy and Breton coasts, in the Seine valley, as well as in the South of France, England, Belgium and Holland.
This painting was painted in 1906, the year he received his decoration as Knight of the Legion of Honor. It probably represents a loop of the Seine, on which boats sail, some steam-powered, whose plumes of smoke transcribed by a few touches of white attract the eye. The composition is split in two along an ascending diagonal; on the left side the water reflects the pinkish sky of the beginning or end of the day while on the right the banks of the Seine are covered with lush vegetation, the abundance of which is highlighted by games of impasto.
Maurice Courant probably looked towards the Impressionists and Japanese prints, as evidenced by the apparent touch, the work around the effects of light and the shimmer of water, the zig-zag treatment of the reflections of the boats, the transcription to the style quite free from steamboat smoke, or the very original framing with a low angle view from the water's edge and the notable importance given to the banks.