Alfred Lombard (1884 - 1973) — Flute Player In A Landscape, 1912

Flute player in a landscape, 1912
Oil on canvas.
89 x 116 cm

Provenance:
Alfred Lombard Workshop
Private Collection, France

Bibliography:
Giulia Pentcheff, Alfred Lombard (1884-1973), Editions Galerie Alexis Pentcheff, 2019, reproduced p.181, n°061

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

Alfred Lombard: Free painter and pioneer of modernity in Provence

Born in Marseille in 1884 into a bourgeois family, Alfred Lombard is an artist with a singular trajectory, deeply rooted in Provence but open to the avant-gardes of his time. Initially engaged in studies of history and literature to satisfy family expectations, he quickly abandoned this path to follow his true calling: painting. From the beginning, he rejected rigid academicism and sought to train himself through direct contact with works, artists and nature. His artistic journey began in the studio of Alphonse Moutte, before asserting himself in total independence. Driven by an ideal of creative freedom, Lombard linked up with a generation of Provençal artists - Camoin, Verdilhan, Chabaud, Seyssaud - with whom he shared a common desire to renew local art and break the cultural isolation of the region. Together, they initiated a "Provençal renaissance" which aimed to make Marseille and its surroundings shine on the national art scene. This movement was notably embodied in the creation of the Salon de Provence in 1906 and, a few years later, in the Salons de Mai. At the same time, Lombard quickly established himself in the Parisian Salons, where he was recognized as one of the promising young Fauvist painters. Two solo exhibitions were dedicated to him in the prestigious Rosenberg (1914) and Druet (1925) galleries. However, the artist rejected the commercial logic of the art world and chose to distance himself from it. His financial independence allowed him to pursue an experimental and free work, outside of official circuits. In the 1920s, his style evolved: less flamboyant, more introspective, he explored still lifes and nudes in refined compositions, where color remained at the heart of his research. Then, in the 1930s, he turned to monumental decorative art, notably thanks to his collaboration with the architect Pierre Patout. Together, they designed prestigious decors such as those for the ocean liners Atlantique (1931) and Normandie (1934). Lombard then sought to adapt the achievements of modern painting to the mural scale, in a demanding reflection on the relationships between the work, space and architecture. His approach continued until the 1970s, marked by an openness to abstraction and a constant questioning of the place of the artist and the creative gesture. Alfred Lombard died in Toulon in 1973. Long confidential, his work was rediscovered in the 1980s thanks to the commitment of his daughter, Claude Féral, and institutions such as the Musée de l'Annonciade or the Alexis Pentcheff gallery, which dedicated a major retrospective to him in 2014. The publication in 2019 of a monograph and a catalogue raisonné essay by Giulia Pentcheff confirms this late rediscovery. Today, Lombard appears as an essential, though long-forgotten, figure of artistic modernity in Provence — a free, audacious, unclassifiable painter who knew how to combine tradition, revolt and invention.

Discover more of this artist's works on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-alfred-lombard#Oeuvres