Maurice Courant - Sailboats At Dusk - 1912 - Watercolor On Paper

Originally from Le Havre, Maurice Courant is an artist specializing in seascapes. Like his cousin Lucien Gros, he studied in the studio of Ernest Meissonnier and moved to Clos de l'Abbaye in Poissy, where he lived until his death. But he will look for the patterns on the Normandy and Breton coasts, as well as in the South of France, England, Belgium and Holland.
Admitted to the Salon from 1868, he also participated in the artistic exhibitions of his hometown of Le Havre and, from 1885, those of the Society of French watercolourists. The titles of his posts often refer to a time of day or a season (Matinée d'été, Calme du matin or Le soir sur la plage, for example). They testify to his desire to transcribe the effects of the sky and the reverberation of light on the waves in their instantaneousness and their ephemeral nature.
Qualified as “sea impressions of astonishing virtuosity and rare seduction”[1], his watercolors constructed with small vibrant touches of color invite us to escape. This is a preparatory study or a replica of his painting Au Delphaven (Hollande) exhibited at the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1912 and known through photography[2].
[1] A.-E. Guyon-Verax, “Exposition of the Society of Watercolourists (2e article)”, Journal des artistes, April 14, 1895, p. 997.
[2] Photograph by François Vizzavona kept at the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie (inv. VZD2119).