Drying The Sails At Dusk - Emil Bénédiktoff Hirschfeld - Brittany

Dimensions:
unframed 38 x 55 cm,
framed 43 x 60 cm.

Oil on canvas, signed lower left.
This work will be on display at the Quimper Antiques Fair from November 7 to 9, 2025.

Émil-Bénédiktoff Hirschfeld (1867 - 1922) :
It is in the opalescent light enveloping the port's reality in twilight and mystery that Hirschfeld's Slavic soul expressed itself with the greatest truth. Like Charles Cottet and the painters of the Black Band, he found his niche in the intimate poetry of chiaroscuro, adding a distinctive and distinguished touch to Concarneau painting. Born in Odessa in 1867, the Russian painter lived for thirty years in Concarneau. He was part of the great movement of foreign artists at the end of the 19th century who came to encounter French realist painting, deeply influenced by Courbet. Munich and then Paris were the stops for the young artist. He arrived in Concarneau in 1891. There he found lodging and food, fellow painters, and the subject matter he sought in the poor and picturesque maritime environment. With a palette sometimes warm and nuanced, sometimes monochrome dominated by green, he painted numerous tuna boats. Hirschfeld had found his calling. He painted many moonrises and sunsets over the bay. Dying prematurely at the age of 54, the Slavic artist had translated, in his own way,