Paul Madeline (1863-1920) "washhouse On The River In Brittany". Signed And Dedicated

Born in Paris on October 7, 1863, and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Paul Madeline quickly gravitated towards landscape painting and was influenced by Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, and Seurat. He gained recognition in the salons for his rural landscapes and joined the Crozant school in 1894, while also making frequent trips to Brittany, Normandy, and the South of France. Critics emphasized that Madeline was “inspired by the palette and technique” of Guillaumin: a sophisticated use of color, a search for vibrant light, and working outdoors in the same locations (Crozant, Fresselines, Sédelle, etc.). Guillaumin and Madeline are cited among the leading figures of the Crozant school. Guillaumin as a leading Impressionist figure, Madeline as a post-Impressionist figure of the “second generation” with Léon Detroy, Eugène Alluaud, Anders Österlind, Alfred Smith, Fernand Maillaud. Brittany, along with the Creuse Valley, constitutes one of Madeline’s principal pictorial “territories”: rocky coasts, fishing ports, villages, and wayside crosses appear frequently. The dated works (e.g., “Breton Coast, 1907,” “Farmyard in Brittany, 1910,” “A Sunday in Brittany…”) show a recurring presence in Brittany at least between the mid-1900s and the 1910s, in the form of working trips rather than permanent residences.
Our painting depicts a small town in Brittany with its wash house. It is dedicated to "H. Avenel." Presumably, Henri Avenel (author of the work Histoire de la presse française depuis 1789 jusqu’à nos jours, published in 1900). This same H. Avenel was active around 1880-1905 as a journalist, press historian and organizer of lotteries and exhibitions at the Palais de l’Industrie in Paris.