“sunset” Max Bouvet (1854 - 1940)

Max Bouvet as a painter is known primarily for his seascapes in a post-impressionist style, often illustrating Breton and Vendée panoramas. The critic V. Revel presented him thus in the brochure of a sale at the Hôtel Drouot on May 3, 1917: Boats at anchor by Max BouvetIt is not rare to see lyrical and dramatic artists exercising with passion, sometimes with talent, an art alongside their own. The pleasure of life is made of change, says the proverb. Mélingue, a popular sculptor, modeled a statuette in Benvenuto Cellini before the public's eyes; closer to us, MM. Mounet-Sully, Truffier, Sylvain, Georges Berr triumphed as writers on various stages, and M. Galipaux picked his first laurels. How many singers and actors thus had their "hobby" in the form of a violin prize at the Bordeaux Conservatory. How many singers and actors thus had their "hobby"? But what is seen less often is a victor on the stage dividing his time equally and so brilliantly between music and painting; and, as they said in the eighteenth century, courting both with equal success. Max Bouvet, the unforgettable interpreter of Figaro, of The Barber of Seville, the creator of The King of Ys, of Esclarmonde, of The Dream, of The Attack on the Mill, of Werther, etc., etc., would have been a painter if he had not been a singer. He preferred to be both at once. A student of Pelouze and Cormon, as well as of the Paris Conservatory, where he was to return later as a professor, he received valuable encouragement from his initiators of the pure and loyal art of holding a brush. From then on, and all the time, there were hours of study distributed between rehearsals and the studio, between the sets, the sea and the countryside. Bouvet exhibited at the Salon of the Society of French Artists; he was rewarded and purchased by the State: "Does the signature mean anything to you?" someone from the suite said to Mr. Georges Leygues, during the ministerial visit. "It is that of the singer of the Opéra-Comique." "Well," replied the Superintendent of Fine Arts, "this painting 'sings for me; Moonrise at Twilight is today in the Museum of Reims. Progress is taking shape; the fame also of the seascapes, landscapes of Max Bouvet, vibrant with warm light, infinitely varied in impression and tone, appear at all the great Exhibitions of Paris, the provinces and abroad. The Queen of the Belgians acquires several canvases of the painter doubly artist, and does them the honors of the Royal Castle of Laeken. Oil on panel signed lower right with its original frame first quarter of the 20th century. Format: 33 x 41 cm with frame: 42 x 50 cm