Jean-louis Daniel (1861–1929) Lakeside

Jean-Louis DANIEL
(Sorges 1861 – Saint-Maur-des-Fossés 1929)
Lakeside
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
H. 33 cm; W. 41 cm
Signed lower left
Donation note on the reverse by the recipient

Provenance:

- Artist’s studio;

- Donated by Madame Daniel following the artist’s death in 1929;

- Faure Collection, painter and friend of the Périgord painters;

- Private collection, Avignon.

Raised in Sorges, north of Périgueux, in a family of well-to-do farmers, Jean-Louis Daniel took up drawing while still in high school in Périgueux, studying under Jean-Gustave Dose. This passion for the arts remained strong, despite a career that began with the Civil Engineering Corps as a civil servant, after which he became director of public works in Périgueux. During those years, Daniel became friends with Georges Darnet and Jean-Georges Pasquet; together they took classes with their shared teacher, Dose. Dose took them to the banks of the Isle to create picadis, or more sweeping views of the river’s calm meanders.

Starting in 1888, Daniel organized, alongside his aforementioned friends as well as Bertoletti, Dose, and Gérard de Fayolle, the Salon of the Dordogne Society of Fine Arts, a tradition he maintained until 1925. He naturally participated in these annual exhibitions, presenting his landscapes of the Périgord as well as those of the Corrèze region. The Paris Salon was not to be outdone, as the painter exhibited there as early as 1908 La Combe des bois, which was acquired at the time by the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie du Périgord.

Daniel adopted the Impressionist technique very early on and, as early as the 1890s, produced works with vivid brushstrokes and almost surreal colors. Characterized by thick impasto, his compositions primarily depict regional landscapes 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 annual Félibrée festival. He was one of its founding members in 1903 and would later write several seminal works on the Occitan language.

True to his Impressionist-style compositions, Jean-Louis Daniel depicts here the shores of a lake, most likely in Corrèze. A stormy sky looms over this landscape, where shades of pink and yellow vie for dominance in the composition. The relatively thick brushwork of this painting dates it to around 1900–1910.

This work is reminiscent of ink sketches in our collection, as well as a small oil painting on the same support sold a few years ago—all of which remained in the painter’s studio until his death.

The famous Faure, to whom the work was gifted by Daniel’s widow, remains a mystery. This man, of whom we possess a portrait by his compatriot Pierre-Robert Lucas, was a landscape painter—certainly an amateur. There is no record of him exhibiting at local art salons; we simply have a few signed works in our possession: this painting by Daniel—which he mentions as a donation through his signature on the back—and his portrait. The mystery remains to be solved!