Marine, Raymond Normand 1919/2000, Landscape Of The Côte Bleue, In Provence

Signed: at the bottom Raymond Normand, referenced painter and side
Oil painting on canvas, in very good condition
Subject: Marine, landscape of the Côte Bleue in Provence
Period: around 1950/60
Formats: with frame 46 x 56 cm - the canvas 33 x 41 cm (6F)
Frame: painted wooden frame, from the time of the painting, in good condition with minor wear.

Raymond NORMAND 1919 / 2000:
Born on November 14, 1919 in Auby, between Valenciennes and Douai, from a family of miners, son of Maria Duhem and Just Normand, mutilated during the Great War.
Raymond Normand spent his childhood in Flers-sur-Escrebieux, until the age of ten. A childhood marked by illness, osteomyelitis which forced him to remain bedridden for two long years. In 1937, and for these health reasons, his parents decided to settle in Marseille where Raymond Normand joined the School of Fine Arts; There he took sculpture and drawing classes and became friends with the sculptor César.
His talent was noticed and he was selected for the Académie de France in Rome, housed since its creation in 1666 by Louis XIV in the prestigious Villa Medici which overlooks the Eternal City from the heights of the Pincio.

After the Second World War, he found himself working with farmers in Lambesc where both his passion for nature and his vocation as a landscape and animal painter were awakened, at the same time as he discovered, fascinated, the work of Vincent Van Gogh, whose influence is evident in certain works.
In 1950, he moved with his parents to Ventabren, at Trou-du-Loup, in the shadow of the ruins of the castle of the lords of Les Baux, in a Virgilian countryside bathed in Mediterranean light. He lived there very simply, close to nature, surrounded by olive trees, goats and cats, according to an ideal of life that fame would not alter. The house he built with his father was very rustic and for a long time had neither running water nor electricity.

A cistern collected rainwater and people lit their homes with candles. They rose and set with the sun, in complete harmony with nature. Day after day, year after year, the artist crisscrossed the surrounding countryside to set up his easel in the picturesque places it offered in abundance along its rivers and in its villages: Grans, Lambesc, Ventabren, l'Arc or la Touloubre. His style asserted itself and his work diversified.

He worked in oil with a brush or a knife and mastered the techniques of wash, charcoal, dry or oil pastel, and Indian ink. His method, which uses small, rounded touches, is reminiscent of pointillism, and the resulting effect is impressionistic. Raymond Normand, a landscape and animal painter, also excelled in the art of portraiture and self-portraiture. Before passing away at the age of 81, and following a family dispute, Raymond Normand had drawn up a will in which he bequeathed his entire work to the town of Ventabren (1,400 paintings and drawings), as well as his real estate and 150,000 euros.

After a long procedure initiated by the artist's nephews, the Court of Cassation finally recognized the commune of Ventabren as the painter's sole legatee in accordance with his last wishes.
An article in the newspaper La Provence dated August 31, 2000, mentioned "the unclear fate of the property bequeathed by the painter," who died on March 12, 2000. "What will become of the house and the impressive number of paintings it contains?" the newspaper wondered at the time.
Twelve years later, the question is still relevant. The paintings are no longer in the house (which was rendered unsaleable, along with its land, by a subsequent modification of the PLU). They are stored in two rooms of the wine cooperative where they risk sinking into oblivion forever, unless the inhabitants of the commune oppose it.

It would be desirable that not only the Ventabrennais but also passing visitors be able to admire at leisure the paintings and drawings of an artist as talented as he is generous towards his adopted village. For the moment, the municipality remains deathly silent on the matter. Painter born and active in Spain at the end of the 19th century, specializing in still life paintings of flowers, post-impressionist.
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Painting visible at our gallery in L'Isle sur la Sorgue (France), on weekends.
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