REF No.1528

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (Mont Saint Père, France 1844 - Paris, France 1925)Les Lavandières

 

Artist Biography:The life of the peasant worker, a theme worked on by the realists and the Barbizon school, was rejuvenated in the later nineteenth Century through Léon L'hermitte. His dignified subjects were often of rustic environments, earning him the title, "the singer of wheat." Though he was a | Read More...

REF No.1528

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (Mont Saint Père, France 1844 - Paris, France 1925)Les Lavandières

 

Artist Biography:The life of the peasant worker, a theme worked on by the realists and the Barbizon school, was rejuvenated in the later nineteenth Century through Léon L'hermitte. His dignified subjects were often of rustic environments, earning him the title, "the singer of wheat." Though he was a very skilled oil painter who exhibited yearly at the Salon, his avant-garde usage of pastels earned him great recognition. Pastels, as a medium, were taken up by the Impressionists in the second half of the nineteenth Century due to its immediacy and primacy of colour. L'Hermitte never showed with these Impressionists, but he is a clear contemporary of their ideas and developments and as such is often considered one of them.

L'hermitte often travelled to Britanny, as he was fascinated by the rural life there. His work was shown in Paris but he also had a dealer who brought his pieces to the US, Canada, and Britain. Moreover, his work also spread through commissions in illustrated magazines. Vincent Van Gogh wrote “If every month Le Monde Illustré published one of his compositions...it would be a great pleasure for me to be able to follow it. It is certain that for years I have not seen anything as beautiful as this scene by Lhermitte...I am too preoccupied by Lhermitte this evening to be able to talk of other things.”

Originally from north-eastern France, Léon Augustin L'Hermitte moved to Paris in time to attend the Salon des Refuses in 1863, and while studying at the École des Beaux Arts he gained recognition after his show in the Paris Salon in 1874. His many awards include the French Legion of Honour (1884) and the Grand Prize at the Exposition Universelle in 1889.
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
Signed 21 ¼" x 25 ½" 64 cm 77 mm x 53 cm 98 mm This pastel focuses more on the landcape rather than the washerwomen Lhermitte often portrayed. Under the shade of a large tree two figures kneel by the water, their white bonnets shining in the sun.
One can only speculate the narrative behind the work, as one figure looks larger than the other - is it a mother and her daughter? But the main beauty of the work is its strong composition and apt handling of light and shade, a detailed observation of the tones of nature.Provenance:Private collection, Europe | Close