Edmond Yarz (1845-1920) - Twilight - Oil On Canvas

Born in Toulouse in 1845, Edmond Yarz studied briefly at the school of fine arts in his hometown and in the studio of the Toulouse painter Dominique Baron. A landscape painter, he claims to be self-taught, however, willingly saying that he learned at the school of nature, which he strives to celebrate in his paintings. "The roses and the money of the morning, the fires of the evening are never repeated for those who know how to admire them" he declares thus[1]. Throughout his travels to Tangier, Mogador, Venice, but also in his dear Pyrenees or in Provence, he likes to transcribe the beauty of southern landscapes and the light of the South. Fairly large in size, this oil on canvas bears two Salon labels: "1949" on the front and "EX" on the back, which makes it possible to identify it as the Twilight that Edmond Yarz exhibited at the Salon of the Society of French Artists in 1895 under the number 1949. It represents a shepherdess covered with a red cape, who tries to warm herself by a fire while her sheep graze in a Mediterranean landscape in the blue-dew light of the falling evening. This landscape is in line with the Twilight exhibited at the Salon two years earlier, depicting a shepherd and his flock of sheep on the banks of a river, which had earned the painter great success. Acquired by the State during its exhibition, it is now part of the collections of the Musée d'Orsay.
[1] B. Marcel, “La Semaine artistique”, La Dépêche, October 1, 1895, np [p. 2]