André Prugent (1882-1965) Seaside

André PRUGENT
(Périgueux 1882 - 1965)
Seaside
Pastel on paper
H. 32 cm; L. 24 cm at sight
Signed lower right

Provenance: Private collection, Périgueux

During his childhood in the capital of Périgord, André Prugent attended the city's drawing school, directed at the end of the 19th century by Jean- Louis Daniel. Quickly becoming his favorite student, this leader of the Périgueux school would not fail to direct him following rapid progress, at the Salon des Artistes Français where he exhibited for the first time at the age of 18. After the mobilization of 14-18, Prugent returned to his land where he was regularly accompanied on outings to paint on the motif, by Emile Chaumont, André Saigne, Gustave Chérifel, etc. This younger generation generally met in the afternoon, while Prugent left the reins of the family store to his wife. This store was none other than the place of supply for painters in the region since there were colors, canvases and other supports necessary for the arts. The windows of this place located rue de la Clarté in Périgueux were also the permanent exhibition space for the painter's latest creations. In love with the nearby regions of the Isle valley, it is the names of Chancelade, Champcevinel, Bassillac which appear numerous times in the painter's compositions. The very simple supports that André Prugent used often marked the touch of this artist whom some compared to Cézanne during his lifetime. Thick frames of canvas, flexible cardboard, added to a broad and sometimes very thick touch gave a lively character to his work. In 1929, he was made a member of the French Artists and continued to exhibit at the Salon until the dawn of the Second World War. However, he continued to exhibit in different French cities and saw his local work crowned by a retrospective exhibition at the Palais des Fêtes in Périgueux, where oils, pastels, watercolors and woodcuts rubbed shoulders, in this year 1965, the eve of his death. We noticed several works signed and dated in English. This fact is currently unexplained, and invites you to contact us, if any information that could inform us is in your possession.

If this work does not make one think at first glance of a composition by André Prugent, it is undoubtedly the fact of seeing the sea appear there. Indeed, we are accustomed to the waterways of Périgord, to the tortuous paths of Champcevinel, but the sun and the blue brilliance of the ocean remain unknown to us.