Arsène Pélegry Painting Animated Landscape Portrait Washerwoman Village River Pyrenees Toulouse 19th Century

Arsène Pélegry - lively village scene at the water's edge 19th

Charming genre scene depicting a Southwestern village animated by washerwomen at the edge of a stream. The composition is organized around a lively foreground with female figures and ducks, while the background features picturesque architecture combining old houses, a wooden gallery and a rural bell tower. The whole picture aptly evokes the peaceful atmosphere of villages in the South-West or the Pyrenean foothills, in a sensitive and luminous regional vein.

Beautiful construction in successive planes, with an animated foreground, a middle plane structured by the vegetated arch and the buildings, then a background dominated by the bell tower. The brushstroke is supple, slightly impastoed in places, particularly in the foliage and masonry, lending substance and relief. The palette is warm and nuanced, playing on muted ochres, greens and blues, with brighter accents in the costumes. Light is diffused, enveloping, creating a harmonious, balanced scene.

Condition: good overall condition. Varnish slightly yellowed, without altering the reading of the work. No visible restoration.

Dimensions:
Canvas: 46 x 39 cm
Frame: 56 x 48 cm

Frame: gilded wooden frame, later than the work.

EU/UK delivery: €19 for this listing if price is not discounted

Arsène Pélegry (1813-1881) was a painter from Lisle-sur-Tarn, active in Toulouse and southwest France in the 19th century. He exhibited at the Salon and developed a body of work centered on regional landscapes, Pyrenean views and rural genre scenes. His compositions reflect a marked attachment to picturesque sites, ancient architecture and everyday rural life. Halfway between landscape painting and intimate narrative, his work is in the tradition of 19th-century regionalist painters, with particular attention paid to light and atmosphere.

Member of the Société héliographique de Toulouse. He was first a landscape painter and then a calotypist. 1813/1881 exhibited the following paintings at the Salon, lives in Toulouse 9 rue de la de la dalbade

Group of bathers

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Path through a wood

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Les Landes

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Beach of Collioure (Pyr.-Or.)

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Arabic wells around Collioure

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Old farmhouses

Painting

Pélegry (Arsène)

Site in the Basses-Pyrénées

Painting