Jean Cluseau-lanauve (1914-1997) Fond De Gaume Aux Eyzies Périgord Dordogne Sarlat

Jean CLUSEAU-LANAUVE
(Périgueux 1914 - Paris 1997)
Fond de Gaume aux Eyzies, March 1989
Ink on paper
H. 105 mm; L. 175 mm each

Provenance: Artist's studio

Jean Cluseau-Lanauve was born in 1914 in Périgueux into a family from the department. It is here that he "meets" the arts, pushed by his parents in this way, before leaving to study them in Paris where he will settle. He entered in 1933, to leave it in a short time before the war, during which he was moreover taken prisoner in Germany. A formation of lithographer and draftsman will trace his beginnings of career, to become in the years 50 to 80, a figure recognized both by his contemporary artists, as by a fervent clientele. Although the head of the school in post-war Paris, Cluseau-Lanauve did not abandon his native Périgord. He has a house there near Les Eyzies where he sets up a small workshop giving him a view of the colors of this land he loves so much. His first painting presented at the Salon of French Artists, in 1935, is a Landscape of Périgord. It will also be bought by the state. This dear Périgord, Cluseau-Lanauve permanently replaces it in his works, which he creates from sketches taken on the motif. Many notebooks of these sketches have been scattered since his death and are found today on the art market, sheet by sheet. His oils, which became cubist in the 1950s, are images with clean lines seeking only to bring out the idealized subject, by luminous facets.

The example of the sketches is good here since these two very powerful sheets were made a few hundred meters from the local house of the artist, in the valley of the famous decorated cave of Fond de Gaume, in Les Eyzies . This valley joining that of the Beune, a small stream flowing into the Vézère, is surmounted by imposing rocks whose strength is here perfectly transcribed.