Motif Of Martiques In The South Of France By Léon Noireaut (1886 - 1960)

The impressionist painting with a motif of the picturesque village of Martiques in Sourh France was executed by the listed French painter Léon Noireaut (1886 Paris - † unknown).
Noireaut studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He fought as a French soldier in Belgium during the First World War. On August 22, 1914, he was taken prisoner by the Germans in the commune of Rossignol. On the basis of several paintings and drawings, conclusions can be drawn about four German prisoner-of-war camps: Ahlen-Falkenberg Moor near Cuxhaven, Ohrdruf near Gotha, Kassel and Mannheim. In the 1920s and 1930s, the painter, who then lived in Mannheim and Paris, achieved a certain prosperity. He and his German wife Elisabeth Noireaut, née Baro, bought a house on Dürerstrasse in Mannheim. At the outbreak of World War II, the couple left Mannheim for Paris, where they settled after the war ended. Noireaut's most recent signed painting dates from 1964. Noireaut's work was initially based on French Impressionism. After a period of captivity during World War I, during which Noireaut painted sparsely colored pictures, he later returned to his colorful Impressionist style of painting. He collected motifs during his travels through France, Italy, and Tunisia. Different Parisian street scenes are often visible in paintings created after 1945. As a portrait painter, he focused on depicting male figures with headdresses and full beards, who were drinking wine or smoking a pipe. There are entire series of different portraits of a few typical figures.

Literature: Lexique d'artiste by Bénézit; online: Wikipedia; date artprice bank.
Inscription: signed lower right.
Technique: oil on wood. Original period frame.
Dimensions: unframed w 50 x h 65 cm (19.7 x 23.6 in), framed w 26 3/4" x h 30 3/4" (68 x 78 cm).
Condition: in very good condition.