Jules Geneste - The Well

Jules GENESTELibourne, 1826 – Castillon-La-Bataille, 1889The WellOil on wood Signed lower left “J. GENESTE”30 x 38 cm (41 x 49 cm with the frame)Beautiful old gilt rodVery good conditionVisible at the galleryGifted artist and jack of all trades Jules Geneste from Libourne was as much a good draftsman, as painter, photographer, poet and pianist. But it was only on the occasion of the 13th exhibition of the Friends of the Arts of Bordeaux in 1864 that he seriously took up painting and exhibited no less than eight paintings which made him known.Jules Geneste painted both Normandy and the Gironde. Here he painted a small corner of the countryside with a lot of charm and a magnificent rendering of the material.This is probably the painting exhibited in 1864 at the Salon des Amis des Arts de Bordeaux “A Well; study" under number 231 at the same time as several seascapes in Normandy and "The cabin of Father Bonhomme, old fisherman near Dieppe" under number 231. "These paintings were noticed, especially number 230, and Mr. Henry Devier, the witty and piquant critic of the Gironde, complimented Mr. Geneste on this occasion, and devoted glowing quotes to him in his review of the Salon Bordelais of the recent exhibition." (Essay on painting and drawing in Angoulême (where Jules Geneste was a student of the photographer Godard around 1860), 1866)