Paul Surtel (1893-1985) House Of The Painter In Quercy 1946. Crozant Provençale School. Maillaud

New work by Paul Surtel this time a beautiful and fairly large oil on panel representing the painter's house in Quercy in 1946, signed lower right + located and dated on the back of the painter's hand. Size of the painting alone without frame 38x46cm This is therefore a new painting by Paul Surtel this time a work from his mature period, the one where he settled with his wife Elia in Quercy for a few short years, then he will leave for Provence near Carpentras. So at this time Surtel uses a powerful touch, still very imbued with his master, Fernand Maillaud, and his palette is made of a range of browns, ochres, caramel, enhanced by blues and a few touches of orange. I no longer present Paul Surtel, an essential painter of the Crozant and Provençale schools, student and faithful friend of Fernand Maillaud, met thanks to his father, also a painter at the beginning and then an innkeeper. Paul will be a painter and winemaker... which shows that the influences remain... Paul Surtel was born in Reuilly on September 20, 1893, in the house where his father ran the café inherited from his grandfather. His parents then settled as millers at the Moulin de la Cour. He was accompanied during his childhood by Fernand Maillaud, a landscape painter, a friend of his father. After the village school, he attended the Issoudun college, and from 1904, the Charlemagne high school in Paris, the Arts Déco school, and above all "playing truant," visiting museums and exhibitions in Parisian galleries. He then fell in love with Rembrandt, Corot and the Impressionists. The war of 1914-1918 arrived. The family left Paris and settled in Dampmart (Seine-et-Marne). Discharged until 1916, Paul Surtel sculpted a little (five or six busts of women). Recognized then fit for military service, he trained at Fort Lamotte in Lyon in 1916. He became friends with Henri Focillon. He went to war as an artilleryman in early 1917. From Seine et Marne to Lorraine, Belgium, Somme, he went from offensives to cantonments. Then he let himself be taken over by nature, drawing according to the advice of Fernand Maillaud, who encouraged him not to bother with technique, to let emotion guide his hand, the profession acquiring itself through attention and work. At the front, he met the writer Raymond Payelle (Philippe Hériat), who remained his friend until his death. Demobilized in Hyères, where his parents had moved, Paul Surtel found work as a forestry foreman in the forests of the Var, and discovered the Provençal nature which would become the source of his work. He married Dorothy Bonarjee in 1921. In 1922, he acquired a winery near Gonfaron. Until 1936, he cultivated vines and continued to draw. Then, at the age of 33, supported by Fernand Maillaud and Raymond Christoflour, he finally began to paint. He separated from Dorothy Bonarjee in 1936. In 1937, Paul Surtel met Elia Duc, then a young literature teacher in Mostaganem, Algeria, during one of his first exhibitions in Oran. They married in 1939, and the artist entered what he called "the sunny side of my life." Forty-eight years of creation followed, first in Peipin (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) until 1946. The paintings of this period are characterized by their tenderness, their lightness, their effusion. After two years in Quercy, then three in Orange, the family settled in 1951 in Carpentras in Vaucluse, where Elia was appointed professor. It was a large household of seven people: two young children, François, Pierre – a third, Jean, was born later – and three grandparents. From the 1960s, he added landscapes, still lifes and portraits. Two young painters whom he encouraged and admired, Ibrahim Shahda and Dominique Barrot, accompanied him in his tastes and enthusiasms. Paul Surtel demonstrated another talent throughout his life, that of writing. He left an impressive correspondence with relatives and friends, painters and writers. The Maison de Reuilly in the village where Paul Surtel was born (on the site of the former tourist office) exhibits around thirty of his works. This painting is in perfect original condition, in its period frame also in good condition. Work guaranteed authentic.