Michel Willenich - A House In Normandy

Michel WILLENICH Alexandria (Egypt), 1827 - Paris, 1891 Oil on canvas 37 x 54 cm (41 x 58 cm with the frame) Signed, located and dated lower right "M. Willenich / Le Havre / 1875" Carry a number (exhibition?) bottom right "148 or 198" Label top right "... Le Havre" Michel Willenich (or Willenigh) is a French painter appointed official painter of the navy in 1883. He studies first at the Académie Julian in Paris where he studied successively with Jules Lefebvre, Gustave Boulanger and Charles Euphrasie Kuwasseg. Willenich painted all the coasts of France, notably the Opal Coast. He also stayed in England. He started at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris in 1870. He became a member. Willnich was decorated with the Order of the Medjidie. Our painting is dated 1875 when the painter visited Havre. Before being official painter of the navy, Michel Willenich already painted the boats on the Opal Coast. In 1876 he exhibited at the Paris Salon a painting representing the entry of the steamer "La Ville de Paris" into the port of Le Havre. It was undoubtedly on this occasion that he carried out a series of studies and sketches in the region, such as this beautiful Norman house typical of the second half of the 19th century. The works of Michel Willnich are notably kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest, Le Havre and at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.