Georges Le Meilleur - Flooded Farm In Fay-le-bec, Seine-et-marne - The 1910 Flood

Large oil on canvas by Georges Le Meilleur (1861–1945) depicting a flooded farm in Fay-le-Bec, Seine-et-Marne, during the 1910 flood.

Work signed lower left and countersigned on the back. Montparnasse frame.

Dimensions: 60 x 92 cm; with frame: 114.5 x 82.5 cm

Provenance: Tuffier Gallery, Les Andelys

A student of Edmond Lebel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, Georges Le Meilleur exhibited a Norman landscape for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1889. After becoming a member of the Société des artistes français, he returned to their salon in 1904 and 1905, once again exhibiting a series of paintings inspired by Normandy. While working with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, he then turned to printmaking and exhibited several woodcuts at the Salon of the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts between 1908 and 1910. He exhibited at the Legrip Gallery in Rouen in 1923, 1925, 1928, 1935, 1937, and 1941.

In this oil painting, Le Meilleur chose a rare subject: the great flood of 1910. The painter had already depicted this farm in 1908, but this event allowed him greater creative freedom. On the one hand, the water flooding the scene allows him to employ a very Impressionist brushstroke throughout the painting. On the other hand, the farm buildings, still standing in the midst of the Marne River, skillfully structure his composition. Despite the subject matter, Le Meilleur chose cheerful colors (the purples of the trees, the oranges of the reflections...) and depicted a flood that seems to blend with the human structures rather than threaten them.