Paul Surtel (1893-1985), Oil On Hardboard, 1984, Provençal Landscape Near Le Barroux, Vaucluse

Paul Surtel (1893-1985), oil on hardboard « Maison près du Barroux », 1984, Provençal landscape, Vaucluse

Oil on hardboard by Paul Surtel (1893-1985), a painter of the Provençal school, signed lower right. On the reverse, the studio label, printed « Atelier Paul Surtel – Carpentras », bears the number 113, the title « Maison près du Barroux » and the date 1984. Signature and studio label agree: a documented work, identified and dated by the artist's own hand.

Le Barroux, a hilltop village in the Vaucluse at the foot of Mont Ventoux, at the gateway to the Dentelles de Montmirail, a few kilometres from Carpentras where Surtel had settled in 1951. A neighbourhood motif, painted on the spot, and a late work: the artist was ninety in 1984 and died the following year.

The road in full sun, rising from the lower left corner and running across the whole width. Beyond the grassy bank, the buildings of the hamlet, one white and half swallowed by shadow, the other a warm limewash yellow beneath its génoise eaves underlined in midnight blue. On the right, the great mass of an autumn tree, in russets, muted greens and wine-lees reds, rising to the upper edge and anchoring the composition. The blue-grey sky is brushed in short crossed commas. The whole is held together by the contrast between the white of the road and the cast shadows: the clear light of late season.

Rich brushwork, laid down in one go and never reworked, the brush leaving its streaks visible in the paint. Everywhere the brown of the hardboard, deliberately left bare between the strokes, serves as an intermediate value and warms the greens — a characteristic manner of the painter, who worked on thinly primed panels to keep this vibration. Direct painting, en plein air, without pentimenti.

Framer's frame in gilt moulding, with an outer ogee and a cove, well proportioned to the format and in keeping with the spirit of the painting.

Sight size 45 x 37 cm, the classic proportion of the easel landscape. Hanging wire in place on the back: the painting is ready to hang, on its own above a piece of furniture or together with other small landscapes in a close hang.

Condition: very good. Sound paint layer, with no losses or lifting, the freshness of the paint preserved. Flat panel, not warped. The frame shows rubbing of the gilding at the corners and edges, a few pinpoints and spots of wear, and slight soiling on the reverse. Nothing requiring intervention — the normal wear of a frame contemporary with the work.

Dimensions:
• Frame, overall: 54.5 x 46.5 cm (21.5 x 18.3 in)
• Sight size: 45 x 37 cm (17.7 x 14.6 in)

Biography:
Born in Reuilly in the Indre, trained in the decorative arts in Paris and guided by the landscape painter Fernand Maillaud, a friend of his father, Paul Surtel discovered Provence after the 1914 war, made his living from vine-growing near Gonfaron, then devoted himself entirely to painting from 1936. Peipin, the Quercy, Orange and finally Carpentras from 1951: nearly fifty years of landscapes, still lifes and portraits, nourished by Corot and the Impressionists. As early as 1945 Albert Lecocq devoted a book to him whose title has remained attached to his name, « Paul Surtel, le Corot de la Provence ». Exhibitions in Algiers, Oran, Lyon, Avignon, Paris, Rotterdam, Berlin, Geneva and Marseille, and a studio sale at Drouot in 1986.

Bibliography:
Albert Lecocq, « Paul Surtel, le Corot de la Provence », éd. l'Hermitage, 1945; André Weber, « Paul Surtel », preface by Maurice Sérullaz, éd. Dany Thibaud, Paris, 1982; « Peintres autour du Ventoux, XIXe et XXe siècles », éd. Connaissance des pays du Ventoux, 2000. Public collections: Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, Carpentras, « François Jouve », 1960, oil on hardboard; the Maison de Reuilly in his native village, which displays some thirty of his works.

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