Jos-henri Ponchin (1897-1981) The Village Of Gordes In The Luberon

The broad brushstrokes and refined lines of classical artists in search of modernism, a monochrome palette of ochre and green hues characterize this view of Gordes, the most famous village in the Luberon, by Jos-Henri Ponchin, worthy son of Antoine Ponchin, heir to a dynasty of Provençal painters.
The work, in perfect condition, is signed in the lower right corner and is presented in an elegant modern American-style frame in solid oak, measuring 57.5 cm x 68.5 cm, while the canvas itself measures 52.5 cm x 63 cm.
It depicts the village of Gordes, perched on its rocky outcrop, famous for its dry-stone huts, the bories.

The son of the painter Antoine Ponchin, who instilled in him a love of drawing and encouraged his vocation, Jos-Henri Ponchin received a solid academic training under Cormon and Dawant at the École des Beaux-Arts.
He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1920 onwards, winning several awards, including the TH Prize. Ralli (1920) and Henri Zuber (1929).
After initial experiences in Corsica and then Algeria, he ventured to Asia, following his father who had just won the Indochina Prize and been awarded a major official commission by the state.
The young painter took a teaching position at the French high school in Hanoi until his return to France in 1931.
After two years in Reims, he moved his family back to the South, where he seemed particularly drawn to landscape painting.
He devoted most of his work to capturing the effects of light in Mediterranean panoramas on canvas.
He was a drawing teacher at the Lycée Thiers in Marseille at the end of his career.

The Marseille Museum of Fine Arts holds one of his paintings, "Annamite Women."