Yaude (1937-2007) The Tip Of The Meadow In Beaumont Du Périgord

YAUDE (Jean Duraffourg dit)
(Bellecombe 1937 – Beaumont du Périgord 2007)
La pointe du pré (à Beaumont du Périgord)
Oil on canvas
H. 81 cm; W. 100 cm
Signed lower left

Provenance: Artist's studio, by descent.

Born in the Haut-Jura, Jean Duraffourg, dit Yaude – his mother's maiden name – has led a singular artistic trajectory, between sensitive figuration and graphic stylization. After training in drawing in Paris in the 1950s, he participated very early in several major exhibitions, including the Salon d'Automne, arousing the interest of art critic George Besson. But rather than pursue a Parisian career, Yaude chose the path of withdrawal, of deep anchorage, by settling permanently in Beaumont-du-Périgord in 1973. The Périgord then became his creative territory. He does not paint its landscapes like postcards or faithful surveys. In Yaude's work, the villages, the hills, the trees are recomposed according to a sensitive memory. The forms flatten, the lines are simplified, the colors blend into soft harmonies. The warm light of the southwest permeates his work without excess: it illuminates, but never dominates. The Périgord is not a subject, it is a presence. Drawing remains at the heart of his practice. In ink, pencil, or graphite, he sketches and composes his works before enlarging them on canvas. He draws silhouettes of houses, fragments of roofs, winding paths – all signs of a world seen, then distilled in a very personal economy of means. Portraits are also very present in his work. Those of his friends and loved ones, which we sometimes find in very large compositions full of life. In this type of work, we find the vision of other Périgord artists like Jean Cluseau-Lanauve or Pierre Baudin. Still lifes are not left behind, and very Périgord subjects are commonly found there. His work, largely produced in the intimacy of the Périgord studio, remains unknown to the general public today. Yet, it deploys a force combining attention to reality and poetic detachment. It is part of this discreet tradition of painters who choose withdrawal rather than posture, silence rather than signature. Throughout his career, Yaude had a special, almost refractory bond with his gallery owners and the recognition of his work. He wanted to make it on his own, rejecting the help given to him, to the point of refusing the offer from the Grand Ducal family of Luxembourg to become their official painter…

The talent remained in his work, which must now be deployed again. Remaining in the studio and then in the collection of his wife and more recently of their daughter, the painter Roxane Duraffourg, this canvas represents an important place in the painter's world. The small house where he lived on the hill of the Château de Bannes in Beaumont du Périgord, nestled in a fantastical oak grove, opened onto small meadows. This is one of them, plunging from the house towards a small gate opening onto the forest. This magical place is perfectly realistic here, at the end of a summer day when the sun brushes the tops of the oaks with yellow and orange hues. The view from above of this small meadow descending then rising to this vanishing point that is the gate, the only element brought by man in this composition, is still intact today.