Oil On Canvas, Landscape, Claudius Peyrache (1860–1940) France, Willows By The Water's Edge

Painting, landscape, Claudius Peyrache (1860-1940), willows by the water, oil on canvas

Pollard willows by the water, oil on canvas laid down on board by Claudius Peyrache (Lyon, 1860-1940), Lyon painter and engraver who exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne — late 19th or first quarter of the 20th century, in the tradition of the Lyon School of landscape painting. A wetland landscape under an overcast sky, with a very low horizon beneath a silvery-grey sky built up with a broad brush, a marshy plain motif in the manner of the Dombes and the banks of the Saône. A small-format work in very good condition, in a recently fitted gilt frame.

Oil on canvas laid down on board, signed lower right, reading "Cl Peyrache", by Claudius Peyrache (Lyon, 1860-1940). Late 19th or first quarter of the 20th century. No date follows the signature. The support is a canvas laid down on heavy board.

In detail: a row of pollard willows, lopped and cut back to knobbed heads, lines up its squat black silhouettes behind a screen of trees with grey-green foliage; in the foreground, a dark band that reads as still water — a pond or marshy backwater reflecting the sky in thick white touches — as much as a riverbank. Very low horizon, silvery-grey sky built up with a broad brush in almost dry sweeps. Restrained palette: lead greys, bronze greens, acid yellows laid as accents over the grounds, deep browns for the trunks and the water. A marshy plain motif in the manner of the landscapes of the Dombes and the banks of the Saône or the Ain.

Claudius Peyrache remains very poorly documented today: there is as yet no Wikipedia entry on him, despite the work of recording Lyon artists carried out around the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. The press of his day presents him first and foremost as a painter, held in some esteem, who exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne. True to the landscape tradition of the Lyon School, far from the poetic magic of Appian (1818-1898), the symbolic power of Roux (1878-1922) or the Cubist-leaning modernity of the Ziniars (the Lyon group of the 1920s with whom he may have crossed paths). One of a last faithful generation: grey skies, water's edges, painting directly from the motif.
Provenance: private collection, France.

A handsome frame, recently fitted: two gilt mouldings enclosing an almond-green cove and a cream fillet, crisp mitred corners, bright gilding that carries the silvery greys of the sky without overpowering them. The outer moulding shows, on the left side, a few very minor areas of wear. Wear consistent with use, visible at close range, with no effect on the soundness of the frame. Hanging fixture in place on the reverse.

Very good state of preservation: paint layer intact, lively impasto, no craquelure or lifting detectable on examination with the naked eye. A single drawing-pin hole in the sky, upper left, the trace of an old pinning, very discreet and with no surrounding loss. Corners of the board slightly crushed on the reverse, entirely concealed by the rebate and invisible from the front. Ready to hang, no restoration required.

Dimensions:
• Frame: 41 x 31 cm (width x height)
• Sight size: 31 x 20 cm (width x height)

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