Pierre Gatier - Motorcyclist And His Passenger On The Road - Gouache - About 1925
Artist: Gatier Pierre (1878 – 1944, France)
Pierre GATIER (Toulon, 1878 - Joigny, 1944)
Motocyclist and his passenger on the road
Cent 1923-1927
Gouache and watercolor on paper
31.3 × 24 cm (sighted) - frame 41 × 32.3 cm
Signed lower right P. Gatier
Very good condition.
On a road whose sandy perspective structures the composition, a man in a trench coat and felt hat pilots a powerful white-sided motorcycle, carrying in rump an elegant woman wearing an orange ribboned cloche hat, skirt pulled up over her legs to below the knee. In the background, two riders struggle to control their rearing mounts, panicked by the clatter and smell of the mechanical machine; in the upper right sky, a biplane stealthily crosses the scene.
Everything in this composition is about speed. The motorcycle speeds off to the right. The horses reel and buck, their twisted bodies expressing a convulsive agitation that contrasts with the mastery of the two motorcyclists. The airplane, a dark silhouette barely visible in the sky, suggests a third, more distant and dizzying speed. Gatier accentuates this sensation with all his brushstrokes: the contours of the motorcycle are outlined with a strong, nervous, almost expressionist black line; the foliage in the background is treated in rapid, projected patches, without concern for detail, creating a vegetal vibration that amplifies the impression of speed. The purplish shadows on the ground, applied in broad flat tints, and the white gouache highlights on the metal of the machine contribute to the overall dynamic. The composition itself, tightly focused on the figures and slightly off-center, reinforces the momentum - nothing is still, nothing is stable.
The subject - the motorcycle as a symbol of freedom and sporting elegance - is characteristic of Gatier's output in the 1920s, a period when he vividly documented the new leisure practices of the Parisian bourgeoisie, captured at the speed of the times.
Gold-plated baguette frame, anthracite-gray marie-louise.
The artist
Born in Toulon on January 12, 1878, Pierre Gatier trained at the École des beaux-arts in Toulon and then at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. The son and grandson of naval officers, he moved to Montmartre in 1896 and was appointed official painter to the French Navy in 1907. An attentive chronicler of elegant Parisian life, he frequented the salons of couturier Jacques Doucet and captured the elegant women of the Belle Époque in color aquatints. The First World War marked a stylistic break. In the late 1920s, he turned to landscapes of the Val d'Oise countryside, then settled in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in 1938, where he painted peaks and glaciers. He died in 1944 in Joigny, Yonne.
Work on view at the gallery (07240).
Shipping: please contact us for information on shipping costs in France and abroad.
Motocyclist and his passenger on the road
Cent 1923-1927
Gouache and watercolor on paper
31.3 × 24 cm (sighted) - frame 41 × 32.3 cm
Signed lower right P. Gatier
Very good condition.
On a road whose sandy perspective structures the composition, a man in a trench coat and felt hat pilots a powerful white-sided motorcycle, carrying in rump an elegant woman wearing an orange ribboned cloche hat, skirt pulled up over her legs to below the knee. In the background, two riders struggle to control their rearing mounts, panicked by the clatter and smell of the mechanical machine; in the upper right sky, a biplane stealthily crosses the scene.
Everything in this composition is about speed. The motorcycle speeds off to the right. The horses reel and buck, their twisted bodies expressing a convulsive agitation that contrasts with the mastery of the two motorcyclists. The airplane, a dark silhouette barely visible in the sky, suggests a third, more distant and dizzying speed. Gatier accentuates this sensation with all his brushstrokes: the contours of the motorcycle are outlined with a strong, nervous, almost expressionist black line; the foliage in the background is treated in rapid, projected patches, without concern for detail, creating a vegetal vibration that amplifies the impression of speed. The purplish shadows on the ground, applied in broad flat tints, and the white gouache highlights on the metal of the machine contribute to the overall dynamic. The composition itself, tightly focused on the figures and slightly off-center, reinforces the momentum - nothing is still, nothing is stable.
The subject - the motorcycle as a symbol of freedom and sporting elegance - is characteristic of Gatier's output in the 1920s, a period when he vividly documented the new leisure practices of the Parisian bourgeoisie, captured at the speed of the times.
Gold-plated baguette frame, anthracite-gray marie-louise.
The artist
Born in Toulon on January 12, 1878, Pierre Gatier trained at the École des beaux-arts in Toulon and then at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. The son and grandson of naval officers, he moved to Montmartre in 1896 and was appointed official painter to the French Navy in 1907. An attentive chronicler of elegant Parisian life, he frequented the salons of couturier Jacques Doucet and captured the elegant women of the Belle Époque in color aquatints. The First World War marked a stylistic break. In the late 1920s, he turned to landscapes of the Val d'Oise countryside, then settled in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in 1938, where he painted peaks and glaciers. He died in 1944 in Joigny, Yonne.
Work on view at the gallery (07240).
Shipping: please contact us for information on shipping costs in France and abroad.
350 €
Period: 20th century
Style: Modern Art
Condition: Excellent condition
Material: Gouache
Width: 31,3 cm à vue / 41 cm avec cadre
Height: 24 cm à vue / 32,3 cm avec cadre
Reference (ID): 1763594
Availability: In stock
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