Jean-louis Daniel (1861-1929) Corrèze Landscape

Jean-Louis DANIEL
(Sorges 1861 - Saint-Maur-des-Fossés 1929)
Landscape of Corrèze
Oil on canvas
H. 33 cm; W. 41 cm
Signed lower left

Raised in Sorges, north of Périgueux, into a family of prosperous farmers, Jean-Louis Daniel devoted himself to drawing from his time at the lycée in Périgueux, studying under Jean-Gustave Dose. This passion for the arts remained strong, despite a career that began with the Roads and Bridges Department as an agent, and later he became Director of Public Works in Périgueux. During these years, Daniel became friends with Georges Darnet and Jean-Georges Pasquet, and together they attended classes taught by their shared teacher, Dose. He led them to the banks of the Isle River to create picadis, or more sweeping views of the river's tranquil meanders.

From 1888, alongside his aforementioned friends, as well as Bertoletti, Dose, and Gérard de Fayolle, Daniel organized the Salon of the Société des Beaux-Arts de la Dordogne, a tradition that continued until 1925. He naturally participated in these annual exhibitions, presenting his Périgord landscapes, as well as those of the Corrèze region. The Paris Salon was not to be outdone, as the painter exhibited La Combe des bois there as early as 1908, a work subsequently acquired by the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie du Périgord.
Daniel adopted the Impressionist technique very early on, and by the 1890s, he was producing works with vibrant brushstrokes and almost surreal colors. His compositions, characterized by impasto, primarily depicted landscapes of the region and were innovative for their time. Jean-Louis Daniel also dedicated his life to preserving Occitan culture through his involvement with the "Bournat dau Périgord" association, which organizes the Félibrée festival each year. He was one of its founding members in 1903 and subsequently wrote several reference works on the Occitan language.

While Daniel's impressionistic paintings are well-known, his more atmospheric compositions are very rare and therefore less representative of what we know of the painter. Our pastel-toned canvas was most likely painted in the Corrèze region, where the artist was a frequent visitor, particularly to Gimel.