Sardine Boats At Sunset By Charles Fromuth - Brittany

Pastel, signed bottom right and dated 1909 and monogrammed bottom left. This painting is in its original frame made and personalised by the artist. Anti-UV and anti-reflective protective glass. Dimensions unframed 44 x 39.5 cm, framed 59 x 55 cm.

Charles Fromuth (1858 - 1937): ‘Movement is the central idea of my work’, wrote Charles Fromuth. Trained at the Philadelphia School of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, he arrived in Paris in 1890. Eight months later, he was in Concarneau, which he never left. Here, in exceptional light, he saw the living spectacle of the sardine port of the time. At the 1900 International Exhibition, he discovered Hokusaï and Japanese art. The perspective vision and gestural expression of this art had a definitive impact on his own style. Until 1910, Fromuth exhibited in Europe, winning various medals and titles in Paris, Munich, London, the USA and Saint-Louis. After 1910, he stopped exhibiting. Like a hermit at the end of the world, solitary and proud, he devoted himself to his pastel art, to his fleeing boats under sail. His friends and buyers were painters and artists, such as Rodin in 1901, who made the special trip accompanied by Fritz Taulow, then a famous painter. Here was an artist who devoted his entire life, almost anonymously, to painting the sea and boats, virtually the sole subject of his preoccupations, but with such fervour and sincerity!