Paul Lunaud (1900–1949) Bourdeilles

Paul LUNAUD
(Brantôme 1900 – 1949)
Bourdeilles
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard
H. 27 cm; W. 36 cm
Signed lower right, located

Provenance: Artist’s studio, then passed down through the family.

Born into a family of millers from the Périgord region, Paul Lunaud was born on the banks of the Dronne River at the dawn of the 20th century. Already passionate about drawing from a very young age, by the time he was around 15, he devoted all his free time to studying the arts. At age 17, he lost his father during World War I and joined his maternal uncle at the family flour mill, the Moulin de Grenier. Alongside his grueling workdays and managing the business, the young Lunaud continued his artistic journey under the guidance of Robert Dessales-Quentin, a painter from Brantôme who was 15 years his senior.

He mastered every medium, and tackled virtually every subject as a challenge, drawing inspiration from the great masters of the 1900s. His style gradually took shape and truly came into its own in the 1930s. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he received an Honorable Mention in 1939 for his two paintings, “Nu” and “Sur la plage”—a testament to the variety of his work and the recognition he received from his peers.

Landscapes of Brantôme and scenes of local life abound, as do portraits and still lifes, which Lunaud executed with excellence in pastel. Many similarities can be found in his landscape compositions compared to those of his mentor, Dessales-Quentin. Lunaud died prematurely in 1949, leaving behind for his daughter Paulette numerous works he had created for her. There is no doubt that if he had lived to see the second half of the 20th century and continued his work, his art would have become emblematic of the Périgord, and his name would not have been forgotten in local memory.

In 1947, Paul Lunaud exhibited this oil painting at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris. It depicts a view of the old town of Nontron, perched on the heights of the Bandiat, whose houses line the curved course of the stream. To the left of the composition stands the medieval fortress of this town in the northern part of the department, and to the right, the church overlooks the town. Although these two buildings are outside the frame, they serve as two important focal points in the landscape of this subprefecture.

A frequent painter of scenes along the Dronne River, Lunaud here achieves a magnificent, lyrical soaring in his painting—honest, accurate, and of very high quality—rendering the light beautifully, all while capturing on paper a subject already depicted by several of his contemporaries, starting with his mentor and friend, Dessales-Quentin. Bourdeilles is seen here from its ideal vantage point, where the bridge spans the widening Dronne River, overlooked by the two structures of the fortress—the medieval and the Renaissance.