Portorson Market, Victor Louis Cuguen (1882–1969)

Pontorson Market – Oil on plywood, signed Cuguen

A beautiful oil painting on plywood depicting the Pontorson market in Normandy, with a bustling market scene in the foreground featuring numerous figures and vendors.

The artist captures the atmosphere of a traditional market with a very free, energetic, and generously impastoed brushstroke. The market stalls, figures, and historic facades are rendered with quick, colorful brushstrokes in a palette dominated by blues, grays, browns, and ochres. The composition is particularly lively, with a beautiful sense of depth created by the houses and rooftops that extend into the background.

The painting has a post-Impressionist and expressive style, emphasizing texture and sensation rather than precise detail.

Signature: Cuguen, lower left
Technique: oil on plywood
Subject: Pontorson Market
Painting dimensions: 23.5 × 18 cm, unframed
Period: probably 20th century
Frame: beautiful antique carved and gilded wooden frame, decorated with stylized foliage.

A small-scale, particularly decorative work, notable for its regional subject matter and its very lively painterly treatment. The reference to Pontorson also lends this painting a documentary and local character sought after by collectors of market scenes and Norman art.