|
The Leicester Galleries Ltd
|
|
|
|
|
BARON LEON HENRI MARIE FREDERIC (1856-1940)
Symbolist, World (founded 1886)
La Vieille Brasserie (The Old Brewery)
( Belgium
1895
)
|
|
Medium
Oil on three canvases, laid on mahogany panels
|
Signed/Inscribed/Dated
Each signed
|
Dimensions
66.00cm wide
174.00cm high
(25.98 inches wide 68.50 inches high)
|
Provenance
Philippe Wolfers, Brussels; his sale:
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Collection feu Philippe Wolfers, 11/12 March 1935
Private collection, Brussels
|
Literature:
Les Ventes Publiques, Collection feu Philippe Wolfers, March 1935, page 8, illustrated
Léon Frédéric Catalogue Raisonné, catalogue number 270
|
Condition:
|
Description / Expertise
La Vieille Brasserie is a painting of a typical Belgian rustic brewery arranged, like many of Léon Frédéric’s larger compositions, as a triptych. Traditionally the format of the religious icon, the triptych is manipulated by Léon Frédéric to convey a new truth in the way that many nineteenth century artists sought to elevate the status of rural life paintings to a new level. They hoped that the triptych would draw new importance and significance to the every day pursuits of ordinary people.
It was a quest in search of Symbolism that led Léon Frédéric to study the paintings of the English Pre-Raphaelites. The figurative compositions of Ford Madox Brown and William Holman Hunt were almost certainly an inspiration for his detailed social commentaries that took the classic form of the triptych, Les âges du paysan (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels), Les âges de l'ouvrier (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), Le ruisseau (1890-1899, Brussels, M.R.B.A.B.) and Les Marchands de Craies (1882-3, Brussels, M.R.B.A.B.).
In the same way that Bastien-Lepage and Jean François Millet were drawn to the timeless rituals of rural life, the Belgium painter Léon Henri-Marie Frédéric pursued in his art the unsullied existence of rural Belgium and France. In 1883, he discovered in the Ardennes the isolated village of Nafraiture where he whiled away the summer months painting. Frédéric admired the Flemish Primitives who, like him favoured the predominance of line over colour and with whom he shared a sense of the spiritual.
|
|
|
Email a friend
Add to favourites
Search again
del.icio.us
