Pierre Cornu - Fauvism - Sunbathing At Sables-d'or - Oil On Cardboard ~ 1955

Oil on cardboard, signed lower right P. Cornu, Fauvist painter, 1895-1996.
The work dates from the 1950s.
It depicts four young women sunbathing on the beach at Sables d'Or.
The painting bears the artist's studio stamp on the back.

This rare work by Pierre Cornu stands out clearly within his oeuvre, which is mostly devoted to female figures in his studio. Here, the painter leaves the interior space to capture, en plein air, a Mediterranean beach scene emblematic of the post-war years. Four young women in bikinis, absorbed in a moment of relaxation and conversation, compose a lively and uninhibited scene, revealing an era when the female body was naturally integrated into everyday seaside life. Cornu treats the figures with his characteristic Fauvist style, while the deliberately non-descriptive background is reduced to a play of colored patches, prioritizing atmosphere and pictorial rhythm over any pursuit of realism. This contrast between the sensual presence of the figures and the abstraction of the setting lends the work a remarkable modernity. It testifies to the painter's freedom of expression and his commitment to a sensual, direct, and assertive style of painting, devoid of narrative artifice. An atypical and sought-after work, both for its collective subject matter and its outdoor execution, this painting is a prized piece for a lover of 20th-century figurative art, sensitive to the free and sun-drenched spirit of the Mediterranean in the 1950s and 60s. Pierre Cornu was a painter trained in the direct lineage of Fauvism, notably under Othon Friesz, from whom he retained the rigor of construction, the freedom of color, and the primacy of pictorial sensation over anecdote. This teaching has a lasting mark on his work. As with Friesz, color is never merely decorative: it structures space, imposes a rhythm, and organizes the composition. Cornu thus situates himself within a controlled modernity, heir to the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, but free from any superfluous theoretical or intellectual pretensions.

Artwork in very good condition.
Painting dimensions: 44.5 x 39.5 cm. Frame dimensions: 59 x 53.5 cm.