Paul Rue (1866-1954) His Wife At The Sewing Studio, Berry. School Of Crozant, Maillaud, Châteauroux...

Very original oil on canvas mounted on cardboard by Paul Rue representing a young woman sewing, apparently his wife, because noted on the back "My wife sewing" and signed lower right. Size of the painting alone 22x27cm and 45.5x50cm including frame. This is indeed a fairly rare composition by Paul Rue who paints here his presumed wife sewing in a Berry interior, this subject is actually quite rarely treated by Paul Rue, because even if he often painted characters he most often put them in landscapes, interior scenes, portraits or nudes are extremely rare in his work. We obviously immediately recognize the touch and palette of the Berry painter, always soft and subtle with here Sienna, pink, purple, yellow, soft green.... We quickly recognize a work by Paul Rue, at least as much as a painting by Fernand Maillaud who was among others one of his mentors. Paul Rue, born in Châteauroux on October 8, 1866 and died in Le Poinçonnet on May 26, 1954, is a French landscape painter. He is the half-brother of the poet Gabriel Nigond. Grandson of a former mayor of Châteauroux, Paul-Joseph Rue, he lost his father just a few days after his birth. In her second marriage, his mother, Françoise Suzanne Duquesnoy, married Charles Nigond, a civil engineer. A Bachelor of Arts from the Châteauroux high school, it was not until 1906 that he turned to painting. Gabriel Nigond, then living in "Epingués" (commune of Verneuil-sur-Igneraie, Indre), introduced his half-brother to the community of regionalist artists he had trained there. It includes men of letters, Abbé Jacob (Hector de Corlay), Lionel Nastorg, but also painters, Henry Coutant and Fernand Maillaud. According to Raymond Christoflour in Maillaud, peintre de la vie, the meeting with the latter would be decisive in his training as a painter. In 1908, he sent six canvases to the Salon des Indépendants, and became a member of the Society of French Artists in 1913. He received a mention at the 1916 Salon. He would be vice-president of the Académie du Centre and of the admissions committee at the Musée Bertrand in Châteauroux. Mayor for sixteen years of the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Lamps, it was nevertheless in Les Divers, commune of Poinçonnet, that he would end his life. Although the artist rarely left the Indre department, within its borders he proved to be a nomadic landscaper: the Creuse valley, the surroundings of Poinçonnet, but also Brenne were frequently visited places. Regarding the latter, he said in an autograph letter that he was seduced by its strange and captivating character. Brenne and its ponds are also conducive to the expression of torments, in a more directly poetic register. In the same letter, he admitted to liking to evoke "the somewhat gray, rather melancholic atmosphere, everything that makes the charm of our Berry skies." Also, his main themes are autumnal and wintery, mostly illustrated by sunsets, twilights, and mist. Trees are also a major focus of this work, always holding an important place in the structure of the landscape. To do this, he practiced studying trees daily. We also find regular hunting scenes. A former hunter, he enjoyed evoking this iconography and practicing his style. While he produced a few illustrations, a series of his paintings was directly inspired by Gabriel Nigond's Tales of the Limousine. Today, he is a key figure among the painters of the Crozant school. Painting in perfect condition, delivered in a large modern gilded frame or delivered unframed for €480, your choice. Work guaranteed authentic