Duval Watercolor Landscape View Of Collioure Lamparo Fishing Drying Nets

Collioure, boats and fishermen ,fishing nets , lamparo - watercolor mid-20th

A lively view of Collioure harbor with, in the foreground, several beached boats and fishing nets spread out to dry. Two figures work around the boats. In the background, the village is arranged in tiers around the Notre-Dame-des-Anges church, whose cylindrical bell tower forms the central visual axis. The whole is treated in a calm atmosphere, with the sea forming a wide breathing space between the planes.

The work is in the tradition of mid-twentieth-century landscape watercolors, imbued with a real pictorial sensibility. The construction is rigorous: a succession of legible planes, a clear hierarchy of masses, fluid articulation between foreground and background.
The color scheme is deliberately restrained, favoring muted harmonies of blues, greens and ochres, giving the work a more descriptive, almost ethnographic tone, highlighting the activity of the fishermen and their lampara-equipped boat, and the gestures involved in drying the nets.

To be compared with 20th-century French watercolorists working on Mediterranean landscapes and harbor scenes, in a structured approach to drawing and wash, close to certain artistic illustration productions.

Signed "Duval" at bottom

French school. Circa 1940-1960.