Alfred Lombard (1884 - 1973) — The Balcony Terrace At Montigny-sur-loing, 1925

The balcony terrace in Montigny-sur-Loing, 1925
Oil on panel, stamp lower right.
45 x 37 cm

Provenance:
Alfred Lombard Workshop
Alexis Pentcheff Gallery
Private Collection, France

Bibliography:
Giulia Pentcheff, Alfred Lombard (1884-1973), Editions Galerie Alexis Pentcheff, 2019, reproduced p.202, n°142

Exhibition:
Alfred Lombard, Color and Intimacy, Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille, March 13 - August 22, 2015, reproduced in the exhibition catalog on p.77.

Certificate of authenticity issued by Giulia Pentcheff, author of the catalog of the artist's painted works.

AlfredLombard: a free-spirited painter and pioneer of modernism in Provence 

Born inMarseilles in 1884 into a bourgeois family, Alfred Lombard was a singularartist, deeply rooted in Provence but open to the avant-garde movements of histime. Initially committed to studying history and literature to satisfy familyexpectations, he soon abandoned this path to follow his true calling: painting.
From the outset, he rejected rigid academicism and sought to learn throughdirect contact with works, artists and nature.He beganhis artistic career in Alphonse Moutte's studio, before asserting his totalindependence. Driven by an ideal of creative freedom, Lombard joined ageneration of Provençal artists - Camoin, Verdilhan, Chabaud, Seyssaud - withwhom he shared a desire to renew local art and break the region's culturalisolation. Together, they initiated a “Provençal renaissance” designed to putMarseille and the surrounding area on the national artistic map. This movementled to the creation of the Salon de Provence in 1906 and, a few years later,the Salons de Mai.
At the sametime, Lombard quickly established himself in the Parisian Salons, where he wasrecognized as one of the promising young Fauve painters. He had two soloexhibitions at the prestigious Rosenberg (1914) and Druet (1925) galleries.Yet theartist rejects the commercial logic of the art world and chooses to distancehimself from it. His financial independence enabled him to pursue a free,experimental style outside the official circuits.
In the1920s, his style evolved: less flamboyant, more introspective, he exploredstill lifes and nudes in refined compositions, where color remained at theheart of his research. Then, in the 1930s, he turned to monumental decorativeart, notably through his collaboration with architect Pierre Patout. Together,they designed prestigious decors such as those for the liners Atlantique (1931)and Normandie (1934). Lombard sought to adapt the achievements of modernpainting to the mural scale, in a demanding reflection on the relationshipbetween the work, space and architecture.Hisapproach continued until the 1970s, marked by an openness to abstraction and aconstant questioning of the place of the artist and the creative gesture.Alfred Lombard died in Toulon in 1973.
His work remained confidential for along time, but was rediscovered in the 1980s thanks to the commitment of hisdaughter, Claude Féral, and institutions such as the Musée de l'Annonciade andthe Galerie Alexis Pentcheff, which devoted a major retrospective to him in2014.
Thepublication in 2019 of a monograph and catalog raisonné essay by GiuliaPentcheff consecrates this belated rediscovery. Today, Lombard emerges as anessential, if long-forgotten, figure of artistic modernity in Provence - afree, daring, unclassifiable painter who combined tradition, revolt andinvention.

Discover more works by this artist on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-alfred-lombard#Oeuvres