Léon Frédéric (1856-1940) Nafraiture Valley, Signed Oil Painting
Artist: Léon Frédéric (1856-1940)
Léon Frédéric (1856-1940)
Vallée de Nafraiture
Signed with the artist’s stamp in the lower left corner
Oil on canvas transfered on panel
29.5 x 45 cm
Certificate of Georges Frederic, son of the artist, on the reverse of the panel
Framed : 33.5 x 49 cm
Provenance :
Estate of the Artist
Private colection, Belgium
This landscape is particularly interesting because it shows how, far from being content to paint from the motif, Léon Frédéric sought inspiration in the landscape to explore a true modernity.
The tree in the foreground is clearly the focal point and contrasts with the lightly painted valley floor. It is almost an abstract colour scheme, but it does suggest everything that fascinates him in this Ardennes valley landscape, the effects of mist and light, for example.
Léon Frédéric was born on 26 August 1856 in Brussels and died on 25 January 1940 in Schaerbeek.
The son of a prosperous jeweller, Léon Frédéric was apprenticed to the painter-decorator Charle-Albert in 1871, and attended evening classes at the Brussels Academy. In 1874, he worked in the private studio of Jean-François Portaels. The following year, he joined forces with a group of young painters to rent a studio where they could study live models. From 1876 to 1878, he prepared for the Prix de Rome, which he failed, but his father offered him a year's travel to Italy. From 1878 to 1879, he made his debut with the artistic group l'Essor, which brought together proponents of realism. In 1883, he was hailed as a promising painter with his painting Les Marchands de craie, a triptych combining modernism with the genius of the primitive masters, and in the 1890s he became one of the most popular painters in Belgium, cited alongside Constantin Meunier and Eugène Laermans.
On 24 April 1929, King Albert I awarded Léon Frédéric - at the same time as James Ensor - the title of Baron.
In 1882, he discovered the work of the French naturalist painter Jules Bastien Lepage at the Brussels Salon.
Some of his paintings took the form of esoteric allegories, such as Intérieur d'atelier (1882), in the Musée d'Ixelles. These works suffice to classify Léon Frédéric as one of the masters of the Belgian Symbolist movement. They foreshadow certain Surrealist themes, as shown by the right-hand side of the triptych L'Eau, L'Eau dormante.
His large triptych, Les Ages de l'Ouvrier, exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay, is also very famous.
But his smaller-format landscapes - including an impressive series of views of Nafraiture in the Belgian Ardennes and his views of dunes on the Belgian coast - reveal a body of work that is just as bold, but more intimate in nature, that of a contemplative landscape lover.
He favoured high horizons, with the sky reduced to the upper third of these canvases, expressing the point of view of a painter who voluntarily allows himself to be dominated by the force of the natural spectacle that fascinates him.
His works are held by the Musée d'Orsay, the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, among others.
Vallée de Nafraiture
Signed with the artist’s stamp in the lower left corner
Oil on canvas transfered on panel
29.5 x 45 cm
Certificate of Georges Frederic, son of the artist, on the reverse of the panel
Framed : 33.5 x 49 cm
Provenance :
Estate of the Artist
Private colection, Belgium
This landscape is particularly interesting because it shows how, far from being content to paint from the motif, Léon Frédéric sought inspiration in the landscape to explore a true modernity.
The tree in the foreground is clearly the focal point and contrasts with the lightly painted valley floor. It is almost an abstract colour scheme, but it does suggest everything that fascinates him in this Ardennes valley landscape, the effects of mist and light, for example.
Léon Frédéric was born on 26 August 1856 in Brussels and died on 25 January 1940 in Schaerbeek.
The son of a prosperous jeweller, Léon Frédéric was apprenticed to the painter-decorator Charle-Albert in 1871, and attended evening classes at the Brussels Academy. In 1874, he worked in the private studio of Jean-François Portaels. The following year, he joined forces with a group of young painters to rent a studio where they could study live models. From 1876 to 1878, he prepared for the Prix de Rome, which he failed, but his father offered him a year's travel to Italy. From 1878 to 1879, he made his debut with the artistic group l'Essor, which brought together proponents of realism. In 1883, he was hailed as a promising painter with his painting Les Marchands de craie, a triptych combining modernism with the genius of the primitive masters, and in the 1890s he became one of the most popular painters in Belgium, cited alongside Constantin Meunier and Eugène Laermans.
On 24 April 1929, King Albert I awarded Léon Frédéric - at the same time as James Ensor - the title of Baron.
In 1882, he discovered the work of the French naturalist painter Jules Bastien Lepage at the Brussels Salon.
Some of his paintings took the form of esoteric allegories, such as Intérieur d'atelier (1882), in the Musée d'Ixelles. These works suffice to classify Léon Frédéric as one of the masters of the Belgian Symbolist movement. They foreshadow certain Surrealist themes, as shown by the right-hand side of the triptych L'Eau, L'Eau dormante.
His large triptych, Les Ages de l'Ouvrier, exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay, is also very famous.
But his smaller-format landscapes - including an impressive series of views of Nafraiture in the Belgian Ardennes and his views of dunes on the Belgian coast - reveal a body of work that is just as bold, but more intimate in nature, that of a contemplative landscape lover.
He favoured high horizons, with the sky reduced to the upper third of these canvases, expressing the point of view of a painter who voluntarily allows himself to be dominated by the force of the natural spectacle that fascinates him.
His works are held by the Musée d'Orsay, the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, among others.
1 450 €
Period: 20th century
Style: Art Nouveau
Condition: Good condition
Material: Oil painting
Width: 45
Height: 29.5
Reference (ID): 1727763
Availability: In stock
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