Trawlers At The Quayside Dated 56

Large and beautiful gouache by Jean Le Merdy, signed and dated 56 lower left. The work is in perfect condition and equipped with anti-UV/anti-reflective glass. Shipping costs are to be determined depending on the destination. Photo not available Jean Le Merdy was born on October 10, 1928 in Concarneau, where his father was a photographer. Raised in this environment, he developed a sense of observation, patience, sensitivity and curiosity. The photographic influence is present in his paintings. At the age of 18, Jean enrolled at the Regional School of Fine Arts in Rennes and in 1948 obtained the Mayor's Prize of the City of Rennes. In 1949, he was admitted to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he joined the studio of Jean Souverbie. In 1956, he won the First Second Grand Prix de Rome for painting for "Young Girls Coming from the Sea", an award that opened the doors of the Casa Velasquez in Madrid for 2 years. Far from his native Brittany, he interrupted his Iberian stay after a year to return to Quimper to take up a position as professor of visual arts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Cornouaille, a position he held until 1988. Jean Le Merdy's career as a painter explored various techniques; gouache on Arches for its speed of execution. He abandoned it in 1967 for acrylic, which he in turn abandoned in 1977 for oil on Arches. The techniques change, the palette evolves, the dark and austere tones light up, become more colorful, flamboyant. The artist likes to treat subjects in series in an immediately modern style. His geometric approach to forms earned him the nickname Monsieur Triangle. Beyond the anecdote, Jean Le Merdy is above all a painter, involved and sensitive. "When he paints the storm, he is in it, it would not be what it is without him..." wrote Per-Jakez Hélias in 1987, recalls the work Benoît Landais. Another theme fascinates the artist: man at work. He likes to frequent ports and farms. He chooses to represent old machines and objects bearing witness to the technical evolution experienced by the countryside or the maritime environment. He paints in carpentry workshops, marine and rural forges. He slips in without attracting attention or disturbing anyone, to better capture the atmosphere, observing the activity in order to soak up the "poetry of everyday life." He likes to paint the ordinary, everyday scenes, especially in Cornouaille, which he travels around in his famous workshop car. He wants to promote his country, its sites, its construction sites, and its products. Like Mathurin Méheut, Jean Le Merdy travels little: he faces the ocean from a distance. He even says: "Nature is enough for me. The others have all come here to seek inspiration, I don't see why I couldn't be satisfied with Brittany." In the fall or at the end of winter, he heads for the countryside where nature is ever-changing, periods when warm, colorful tones magnify the landscapes. Just as for the objects, it represents rural landscapes that will be victims of urbanization or modern agriculture by the uprooting and destruction of embankments. The work of Jean Le Merdy is worth for its exceptional documentary interest, through the faithful observation of the evolutions that the maritime and rural environments have undergone. It emanates a kind of fervent admiration for Cornouaille and its men and women, transmitted with force and sensitivity. Jean Le Merdy is the creator of the illustrations of the covers of 2 works devoted to Brittany: Upper Brittany by Jacques Levron and Lower Brittany by Auguste Dupouy. He also illustrated the book Le Pays Bigouden by Per-Jakez Hélias. In 1979, he was appointed Official Painter of the Navy, in recognition of the quality of his painting but also of his love of the sea. "Jean Le Merdy is one of the most valuable artists of the contemporary corps of Painters of the Navy, one of the most complete, one of the most remarkable" summarized Admiral François Bellec, in 1995, then director of the National Museum of the Navy. His work has been honored in several exhibitions, the main ones being the retrospective at the Museum of the Navy in Paris in 1996, and the one organized in Perros-Guirec in 2006. Two monographs have been published, one by Benoît Landais published by Palantines and the other by René Le Bihan published by Le Télégramme.