Jacques Laplace (1890 – 1955), The Village

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. 54 × 72 cm.
Jacques Laplace was one of the discreet yet decisive figures of Lyon’s modern art movement. He devoted more than thirty years to teaching, notably at the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. He mentored Fusaro, Truphémus and Cottavoz, who would later form the core of the Sanzistes. Deeply attached to Lyon and close to the Ziniars, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne of Lyon and the Salon du Sud-Est.

The painting captures a village in the light of late afternoon, beneath a sky animated by silvery clouds. In the foreground, a golden field streaked with oblique brushstrokes leads to a low wall punctuated by a red trellis that structures the composition. On the left, a house with bluish edges introduces a touch of freshness and extends the harmonic play between greens and oranges. The village forms, silhouetted against the light, create a sense of ordered balance.

Laplace builds his composition through successive flat tones: his palette, restrained and luminous, reveals the influence of Cézanne, where structure merges with chromatic vibration. The whole conveys a serene calm in which the rigor of drawing and the softness of color unite.