Joseph Inguimberty (1896 - 1971) — The Forecourt Of The Saint Michel Church In Menton

The forecourt of the Saint Michel church in Menton
Watercolor on paper, stamp lower right.
46 x 58 cm

Provenance:
Atelier Joseph Inguimberty
Galerie Alexis Pentcheff
Private collection, France

Certificate of authenticity established by Giulia Pentcheff, author of the first catalog of the artist's painted work.

The painter with two shores: from Indochina to Provence

Born in Marseille in 1896, Joseph Inguimberty left his hometown for Paris, where he trained at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs. In 1925, he answered Victor Tardieu's call and moved to Hanoi to teach at the École des Beaux-Arts, which he accompanied for more than twenty years in the birth of modern Vietnamese art. Alongside Alix Aymé, he participated in the revival of the traditional lacquer technique, which they adapted by skillfully blending Asian know-how and Western influences. The Second World War interrupted this long Indochinese period. Returning to France in 1946, Inguimberty settled in Menton, his wife's hometown, and rediscovered the Provençal landscapes, which he painted with a perspective profoundly transformed by his Asian experience. His works combine flat colors, serenity, and slender forms, creating a subtle fusion between the rice paddies of Tonkin and the lavender fields of Provence. Marseille, his hometown, remains a constant source of inspiration. He had already painted monumental scenes of dockers on the quays there in the 1920s, and he continues to explore its ports and coves, faithful to his practice of painting on location. Despite a rich career and regular exhibitions in Parisian galleries, he remains little known locally, while he is today recognized in Vietnam as one of the major artists of his time. In 2012, the Alexis Pentcheff gallery in Marseille organized a major retrospective entitled The South of Joseph Inguimberty, restoring visibility to his work in France. At the same time, the publication of the first catalog raisonné, directed by Giulia Pentcheff in collaboration with the artist's children, allows us to reconcile the different facets of his work and reveal the profound unity of a journey shared between two cultures, two worlds, two forms of light. Joseph Inguimberty has thus created a singular body of work, at a crossroads, which transcends geographical and temporal boundaries. An art that is both rooted and floating, where painting becomes the place of an encounter between memories of elsewhere and familiar landscapes, between tradition and modernity.

Discover more works by this artist on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-joseph-inguimberty