Persian Horseman By Swiss Artist Gustave Poetzsch

Pastel signed and dated 1939 lower right, depicting a Persian rider surrounded by two parrots perched on orange trees, a frieze of dogs at the bottom of the sheet. This pastel is framed in a molded wooden frame from the early 20th century. Without a frame it measures 47.2x61.5 cm. It is probably a project for wall decoration, fresco, mosaic or tapestry. Born in 1870, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Gustave POETZSCH is a painter who left behind a large number of paintings and drawings. Still little known until recently, a sale of the back of his studio brought the artist to light. He went to Paris to complete his artistic apprenticeship and entered the studio of Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), the same one frequented by Matisse and the future Fauves. He was the husband of Marie-Louise Aulagne, a renowned milliner from the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. He painted portraits and landscapes, particularly landscapes around Velay. The artist's many stays in Brittany, in Normandy in Deauville where he stayed, in the Arcachon basin or in Haute Loire where the family had a house, would inspire his works imbued with gaiety and carefreeness (like the many works on the beaches of Deauville). From 1895, he exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.