Ernest Victor Hareux The Lake Of Seven Laux Dauphinois School Of The 19th Century

In this painting, the Lac des Sept Laux stretches calmly beneath a pale, diffuse sky, capturing the silent immensity of the Alpine peaks. The composition exudes solitude and the unspoiled majesty of the high mountains. The blue waters of the lake, with an almost sacred calm, seem to collect the impassive reflection of the rocky peaks that surround them. These mountains, streaked with persistent snow, emerge powerfully, like ancestral watchmen overlooking the valley. On the left bank, a modest chalet, made of rough wood and discreet in its presence, shelters in the hollow of the slope. It adds a human touch to this wild setting, like a temporary rest stop in the mineral eternity of the place. Before it, short meadows, punctuated by white rocks, spread out in shades of ochre and moss green, witnesses to the harsh climate that shapes the landscape. The slightly veiled sky lets in a soft, fresh light, accentuating the contrasts without violence. Everything here is balanced, between the roughness of the stone and the tranquility of the water, between the verticality of the reliefs and the horizontality of the lake. This painting does not tell a story, it invites immersion, the slow contemplation of a world outside of time, frozen in the raw beauty of the Alps. It pays homage to the quiet force of nature, to this nature that does not need spectators to exist, but which, when we look at it, imposes silence on us. Ernest-Victor Hareux is one of the great painters of the Dauphiné school of the 19th century. Born in Paris in 1847 and died in Grenoble in 1909, he exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1868 and won a medal in 1880. Hareux was a landscape painter, who essentially became a mountain painter after his meeting with the greatest of the Dauphiné painters, Abbé Laurent Guétal, who invited him to join him in Grenoble in 1887, where he remained until his death in 1909. Ernest Hareux joined the Dauphinoise school with his friends Ravanat, Bertier and Achard. He is best known for his mountain paintings. A founding member of the Société des peintres de la montagne, he saw in alpine landscapes a very imposing decorative power that lends itself admirably to theatrical or panoramic paintings. Signed and located on the back Stamp of the Laurent Guetal workshop