Georges De Sonneville (1889–1978) Pier On The Garonne River Bordeaux Ca. 1920 Oil/canvas 27x35

Georges de SONNEVILLE (1889 Nouméa–1978 Talence)
The Hirondelles Company Pier in Bordeaux
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
Circa 1920/1925
Dimensions without frame: 27 x 35 cm
Montparnasse-style frame

Born in Nouméa in 1889 to a family of wine merchants from Bordeaux, Georges Préveraud de Sonneville showed an interest in drawing and painting from a very young age. He returned to Bordeaux in 1903 and pursued a classical education at Lycée Montaigne, then at the law school, where his scathing caricatures earned him a certain reputation. At the same time, he studied artistic techniques under Paul Antin at the Atelier and attended the Académie Rosa Bonheur, then enrolled at the Académie Ranson in Paris to study under the Nabis artists Paul Sérusier and Maurice Denis. Drafted in Bordeaux, he shared an office with André Lhote, with whom he would “wash watercolors” on the city’s riverbanks. After a Fauvist and Cubist period, he developed a personal, independent style, characterized by a line full of movement, enhanced by light and vivid colors. Considered a leader of modernism in a city entrenched in a certain academicism, he organized, on the occasion of the 1919 Bordeaux International Fair, an exhibition titled “A Group of Modern Painters.” At his home in Bordeaux and later in Martillac, where he settled with his family from 1925 to 1931, he welcomed all supporters of a renewed art form. In 1928, he founded the “Artistes Indépendants Bordelais” exhibition. In Bordeaux, he painted the Garonne River, the river banks, the boats, the sailors, and the lively, noisy crowds. In Martillac, he painted the intimacy of family life, children growing up, the grape harvest, and the peaceful life of the village. In Paris, where he lived from 1931 to 1964, he depicted the banks of the Seine and the Marne, the barges, the bathers, the streets, and the scenes of everyday life. He settled in Talence in 1964, where he passed away in 1978.

About this painting:
Our painting, which dates from the artist’s Bordeaux period, depicts the central pier of the Compagnie des Hirondelles, which operated the ferry service between Bordeaux and La Bastide and Lormont. The service was operated by small steam-powered gondolas capable of carrying 50 to 100 passengers, with a departure every five minutes. Facing competition from the tramway and the automobile, the gondola service between the two banks of the Garonne was permanently discontinued in 1947, after 80 years of loyal service.The falsely naive style with which the pier is depicted is very representative of Sonneville’s style in the years 1920–1925.