Robert Dessales-quentin (1885–1958) Panoramic View Of Treignac, Corrèze, Vézère

Robert DESSALES-QUENTIN
(Brantôme 1885–1958)
Panoramic View of Treignac - Corrèze
Oil on wood
H. 82.5 cm; W. 123 cm without frame
Signed lower right

Provenance: Private collection, Périgueux

Robert Dessales-Quentin was born in one of the most beautiful villages in France: Brantôme, nicknamed the “Venice of the Périgord,” as it lies on the banks of the Dronne, a river that serves as a natural defense by encircling the town. This small town in northern Périgord was the artist’s playground throughout his life. At the age of four, he completely lost his hearing as a result of treatment that was unsuitable for his then-unknown intolerance to quinine. His father, a notary in Brantôme, decided to send him quickly to Paris, where he would study at the National Institute for the Deaf and Mute. Aware of his artistic inclinations, his parents enrolled him at the Académie Jullian, in the studio of the famous Jean-Paul Laurens. A man of taste and deeply attached to his native region, Dessales-Quentin naturally gravitated toward landscapes rather than historical painting, for which his studies had prepared him.

He soon returned to the Périgord region, where he found his calling in depicting the local heritage. Castles, stately homes, churches, and cityscapes were exhibited as early as 1909 at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris. He felt most at home working in watercolor, even earning a Grand Honorable Mention at the Salon in 1928—a rare achievement for this medium. In oil painting, he went through several different periods and styles, notably a period that could be called “wisteria,” due to the recurring presence of this plant in his paintings between the two world wars.

A drawing teacher for over fifteen years at the prestigious Institution Saint-Joseph in Périgueux and in his studio on Rue du Plantier, he was nicknamed by his students the “brilliant left-hander.” It was in this very studio that Dessales-Quentin welcomed the “whole of Périgord” each year for a highly anticipated exhibition of his works.

Though familiar with the old stone buildings of the Périgord, he did not neglect “other places.” Corrèze would be a place he frequently visited, as would the Basque Country—both the French and Spanish sides.
He exhibited his works in numerous French cities, traces of which we find very regularly through the well-known labels on the backs of his watercolors and their original frames.

Uzerche, Turenne, Ségur-le-Château, Le Saillant, Donzenac—and now Treignac takes its place in Dessales-Quentin’s collection of works from Corrèze. This very large, luminous, and well-composed painting was created on the banks of the Vézère River; in the foreground, we see the river and the old bridge over which the town developed. The old church and houses are situated on this ridge, at the end of which a now-vanished fortress once stood. Today, the village of Treignac has expanded into a larger area where more spacious houses and squares have been built.