Auguste Jean Claire, “the Sunlit Porch,” Oil On Canvas

Auguste-Jean Claire was born in Paris in 1881. He began his career as a designer and patternmaker for upholstery fabrics and wallpaper. He loved the countryside and nature, which inspired him to draw birds, plants, and flowers. In 1910, while traveling, he discovered the village of Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei and the landscapes of the Sarthe Valley.
He was captivated by the place, found it a source of inspiration, and settled there permanently in 1927. He then had a beautiful house built on the heights of Saint-Céneri, overlooking the Sarthe River from a sloping plot of land that he had landscaped. A staircase of two hundred and twenty steps leads down from his house to the river. On the other side, it opens onto the road to Alençon. He named it “La Vallée Claire.” 
He painted the many landscapes around Saint-Céneri—countless apple trees in bloom, the Sarthe River, ponds, his house, trees, stormy skies, and morning scenes... However, he did not exhibit his works until about twenty years after he began painting. In 1931, he participated in the Salon des Artistes Français, and in 1935, he received the gold medal (awarded outside the competition). His works have been sold throughout France and around the world, and can be found in Paris, Le Havre, Nantes, Rouen, Detroit, London, Florence, São Paulo, the United States, Canada, and Italy...
Claire himself defined his painting as follows: “Light and power, crystal-clear waters, lush, untamed nature—it must be untangled and organized. A work of art does not consist of fidelity to detail; one must eliminate the superfluous through areas of stillness intended to highlight the essential. There is a sacrifice in a painting, for the sake of what one has sought to exalt.”
General de Gaulle had a painting by Auguste-Jean Claire in his office depicting apple trees in bloom.

From 1946 to 1953, Auguste-Jean Claire served as mayor of the village of Saint-Céneri. He died in 1970 at the hospital in Alençon.

In 2012, Pierre Georges René Lerebours donated ten paintings by Auguste-Jean Claire to the town of Saint-Céneri. A resident of Sceaux and Saint-Malo, he had been spending his vacations in Saint-Léonard-des-Bois and Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei since 1960. As the owner of a fine collection of paintings, including those by Auguste-Jean Claire, he decided to donate them on the sole condition that they be displayed at the town hall. The ten paintings are grouped by theme and can be viewed during town hall opening hours. They will be exhibited for the first time during Heritage Days in September 2012.
source: https://www.laconfreriedesfinsgoustiers.org/le-peintre-auguste-jean-claire.html https://www.laconfreriedesfinsgoustiers.org/le-peintre-auguste-jean-claire.html