Pierre De Belay (1890-1947) Château De Pipriac, Brittany 1942. Quimper, Brest, Jacob Treilliste

MAGNIFICENT oil on paper by Pierre de Belay depicting the Château de Pipriac in Brittany, Ille-et-Vilaine, in 1942, signed, located, and dated lower right + countersigned, titled, and dated again by the artist on the back. Painting dimensions (unframed): 36.5 x 54 cm, framed: 55.5 x 73 cm. In very good condition; I note only a very small touch-up in the lower left corner (see last photo), but it is extremely discreet. Available either in a Montparnasse frame with some minor damage and a broken mat, or in a contemporary silver frame (second photo). Please note that there is no glass, but adding glass would be a good idea, although not essential. Guaranteed authentic. This is a magnificent oil on paper by De Belay, depicting inland Brittany with the Château de Pipriac. Painted in 1942, this work shows De Belay at the height of his powers, not only in his "traffitte" period, a highly complex technique where the painter combines hundreds of tiny hatch marks, somewhat like the pointillists, except they used dots. He is one of the few painters to have adopted this technique, and certainly the one who mastered it best. De Belay produced "traffitte" works in oil, as seen here, but also in watercolor and pastel. Pierre De Belay, the celebrated painter of the Breton school, needs no introduction, renowned worldwide for his genre scenes, Fauvist and Cubist works, and, as here, his "traffitte" pieces. Pierre Savigny de Belay, or Pierre de Belay, born on December 12, 1890, on Rue des Boucheries in Quimper, France, and died on June 30, 1947, in Ostend, Belgium, was a French painter. His real name was Eugène Pierre Savigny (or Pierre Savigny de Belay, after one of his maternal ancestors). Pierre de Belay discovered his vocation as a painter in 1900. His father, Azéma Savigny, a wine merchant and amateur artist who painted many landscapes of the banks of the Odet River and scenes of the port of Quimper, and his mother, Carmelle Bodet, did not oppose their son's ambitions. The only advice he accepted was that of his father. By 1903, Pierre Savigny de Belay was already painting numerous portraits of prominent citizens of Quimper. He was noticed by Max Jacob, a poet from Quimper and a close friend of the family. Max Jacob had already predicted that he would become a famous artist. He studied without a teacher, worked fifteen hours a day, sketched fishermen in the port, and noted episodes from the daily lives of sailors. Max Jacob taught him to direct himself, to control his nature, but not to disobey him. In 1905, Max Jacob and Pierre Savigny de Belay settled in Paris. They lived in Montmartre, at the Bateau-Lavoir, which also housed Picasso's studio. There, Pierre de Belay met many artists—Juan Gris, Apollinaire, Salmon—whose portraits he painted, and immersed himself in a veritable ferment of ideas. Despite this effervescence, Pierre Savigny de Belay maintained his independence from the artistic movements of the time. He renewed traditional Breton themes with a dynamism, colors, and structure considered fundamentally modern at the time. He rarely associated with Breton painters, preferring to cultivate strong friendships, such as the one he shared with the composer Paul Le Flem. He paid little attention to faith, legends, the Celtic past, or traditions, favoring the atmosphere of ports and markets. He used a limited palette and reduced his figures to their basic forms. His groups of fishermen sometimes display the frank, folkloric naiveté of popular imagery. Yet his works are not without the influence of the movements he frequented. For example, the construction of his compositions and figures borrows from Cubism (The Breton Couple, 1933), while his colors and brushstrokes are influenced by Fauvism (The Gavotte, 1919). His curiosity and passion for the "thing seen," his ability to capture fleeting expressions on faces, make Pierre Savigny de Belay a reporter of his time. In 1920, he left Montmartre and settled in the 5th arrondissement. He sold his paintings to the art dealer Terrisse. From 1923 to 1926, he illustrated the magazine Arlequin, a periodical of arts and entertainment, and in particular the section "Paris at Soup and Dinner." His curiosity and passion for reality, his way of capturing fleeting expressions on faces, made Savigny de Belay a reporter of his time. In July 1933, the Stavisky Affair erupted, leading to a political crisis following the businessman's alleged suicide. He attended the trial, drawing numerous sketches (courtroom scenes, pleadings, etc.). The artist noted in his notebooks the faces of the accused, the expressions of the jurors