Maurice La Bany (1880-1960), Boat In Front Of Villefranche

MAURICE LA BANY (1880-1960) Boat in front of Villefranche Oil on wood signed lower right Dimensions: 21 x 32 cm Dimensions with frame: 24 x 35 cm Biography: Maurice La Bany was born in 1880, probably in Nice or its surroundings, in an artistic context marked by the Mediterranean light and the development of regional schools in the South of France. Attracted to painting at an early age, he continued his training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied in particular in the studio of Léon Bonnat. This dual affiliation – Parisian academic and southern sensibility – would profoundly mark all of his work. Back on the Côte d'Azur, Maurice La Bany focused on depicting the daily life of Mediterranean ports and villages, fishermen at work, coastal landscapes and bouquets of flowers bathed in light. He thus belongs to the figurative and luminous tradition of what has been called the School of Nice, a pictorial movement favoring clarity, color and the atmospheric rendering of the seaside. His vigorous brushwork and supple material reflect a direct observation of the motif: the touch remains legible, but always at the service of a balanced and poetic vision of reality.