Gabriel Roby (1878–1917) Sea, Basque Country, 1909. Symbolist, Nabi, Sourgen, Zo, Caro-delvaille

STUNNING and RARE: Gabriel Roby’s second large gouache watercolor depicting a seascape in the Basque Country in 1909, signed and dated in the lower right corner + countersigned and marked on the back, most likely in Roby’s own hand: “Gabriel Roby, Basque Country." This watercolor is part of a series of two; please see the other listing.
Dimensions of the watercolor alone (unframed): 52x69 cm; 66x83 cm including the frame.
The artwork is in perfect condition and comes in a very attractive gilded frame with a modern brown patina.
Authenticity guaranteed.
Price for one watercolor: 2,500€; or 4,500€ for both—your choice.

Thisis indeed a very rare series of two large watercolors by Gabriel Roby from 1909 depicting wave effects in the Basque Country, rendered in the style of the Nabis or the Symbolists, and it is thanks to this painting style that he stands out among Basque painters. The decorative effect is absolutely sublime, with very light brushwork and a superb palette of blues—and here, in addition to pinks and oranges to depict the beach—he has created this little masterpiece, undoubtedly a major work. 

Roby sadly died very young; otherwise, he would be at least as well-known today as an Arrue or a Sourgen. Despite this, art lovers are well aware of his value, as he commands a very high market value and his works fetch high prices—as evidenced by two very small watercolors that sold for over €1,800 and an oil painting that sold for over €6,000 last year in the Basque Country. 

Gabriel Roby, born on September 2, 1878, in Bayonne, France, and died on May 14, 1917, in Paris (16th arrondissement) of tuberculosis, was a French painter of the Bayonne School. A student of Philippe Jolyet and Léon Bonnat—and the uncle-in-law of Claude Lévi-Strauss—he left behind landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes evoking the Basque Country, rendered in a post-Impressionist and modernist style. Despite the brevity of his career, he is one of the major artists of the Bayonne School.

Gabriel Ernest Eugène Roby was the son of Jean-Marie Norbert Roby, a merchant, member of the Bayonne City Council, and Knight of the Legion of Honor, and of Marie-Ernestine Hurlin. He was born on September 2, 1878, on Rue Bourgneuf in Bayonne, in the Basses-Pyrénées department. In 1890, he studied under Philippe Jolyet at the Bayonne Municipal School of Drawing and Painting, where he was a classmate of his future brother-in-law, Henry Caro-Delvaille. There, he won numerous awards each year until 1897. He then received a scholarship from the City of Bayonne to continue his studies at the École nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris.Roby exhibited regularly with the Friends of the Arts of Bayonne-Biarritz, the Friends of the Arts of the City of Pau, and at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris.In 1914, he was appointed head of the studio at the Académie Colarossi on Rue de la Grande Chaumière. He appears in Henri Zo’s large painting: Léon Bonnat and His Basque and Béarnese Students, presented at the 1914 Salon des Artistes Français and intended for the courtyard of the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne.

He died of tuberculosis in Paris in May 1917.