Maurice Aubret (1897-1977) Oil On Wood Marine Seaside Rocky Coast

Rocky Coast, oil on wood by Maurice Aubret (1897-1977), a French painter and one of the major painters from Roanne, alongside Jean Puy, Maurice Tête, Maurice Montet, Octave Lafay, and Émile Noirot.
Signed lower left.
Good condition.
Dimensions without frame : 30 x 20 cm.
Dimensions with frame : 34.3 x 24.3 cm.
Born in 1897 in La Pacaudière, he remained attached to his native village for a long time, which would become a recurring subject in his art. From a very early age, he was influenced and taught by the master watercolorist Octave Lafay, who was his drawing teacher. Enlisted at the front in 1918, he was unable to devote himself fully to painting, even upon his return, as he worked in a bank in Lyon. However, the settings and images of the neighborhoods he frequented daily would be found in his paintings, when he depicted the Café des Négociants, for example. He founded the "cénacle" in 1927 with his Roanne painter friends, which allowed him to begin exhibiting his art, first in the region, and then gradually throughout France. It was in 1947, during the annual exhibition in the main hall of the Town Hall, which was entirely dedicated to him, that he began to be truly recognized.
He maintained regular correspondence with other Roanne painters, notably Jean Puy, with whom he formed a true friendship, which influenced his painting both in the way he handled the brushstrokes and in the subjects depicted, ranging from intimate and family scenes to lively and animated outdoor scenes. Close to the neo-impressionism of Pissaro or Seurat and evolving to Matissian Fauvism, Aubret tried different techniques, daring to use a rich and varied palette of bright tones and bold flat tints in his works. He also attaches great importance to drawing, particularly in his watercolors whose lines, clearly visible, seem at once almost geometric and yet curved on the bodies.