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Lot Essay
Didier Imbert has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf exemplifies Gustave Loiseau's life-long fascination for the Seine and its tributaries. Depicting the river Eure as it crosses the provincial town of Elbeuf before joining the Seine, the work captures the passing of the water in a moment of muted light. Avoiding the strong light of midday, Loiseau often privileged the softer crepuscular light of morning or evening. In Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf, the pink shades of sunset have already appeared in the sky, while the façades of the houses faintly reflect the last warmth of the ending day. In its technique, the work illustrates Loiseau's instinctive and inventive use of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist techniques: while the sky shows the blended brushstrokes reminiscent of artists such as Claude Monet, the river articulates a technique loosely inspired by the pure colour theories of Pointillism.
A great friend of the painters Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret, Loiseau belonged to the generation of young artists which the Impressionists recognised as the successors of their legacy. In 1895, Monet and Auguste Renoir introduced these young painters to their art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who two years later signed an exclusive contract with Loiseau. Thanks to this contract, in the following years Loiseau was able to travel repeatedly to Normandy. Following the Seine on its course towards the English Channel, in those years Loiseau painted the most significant group of works of his career, gaining the title of 'historiographer of the Seine'. In its subtle brilliance, Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf demonstrates Loiseau's lyrical colourism as well as his sensibility for a subject which he tirelessly explored throughout his career.
Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf exemplifies Gustave Loiseau's life-long fascination for the Seine and its tributaries. Depicting the river Eure as it crosses the provincial town of Elbeuf before joining the Seine, the work captures the passing of the water in a moment of muted light. Avoiding the strong light of midday, Loiseau often privileged the softer crepuscular light of morning or evening. In Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf, the pink shades of sunset have already appeared in the sky, while the façades of the houses faintly reflect the last warmth of the ending day. In its technique, the work illustrates Loiseau's instinctive and inventive use of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist techniques: while the sky shows the blended brushstrokes reminiscent of artists such as Claude Monet, the river articulates a technique loosely inspired by the pure colour theories of Pointillism.
A great friend of the painters Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret, Loiseau belonged to the generation of young artists which the Impressionists recognised as the successors of their legacy. In 1895, Monet and Auguste Renoir introduced these young painters to their art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who two years later signed an exclusive contract with Loiseau. Thanks to this contract, in the following years Loiseau was able to travel repeatedly to Normandy. Following the Seine on its course towards the English Channel, in those years Loiseau painted the most significant group of works of his career, gaining the title of 'historiographer of the Seine'. In its subtle brilliance, Le pont suspendu à Elbeuf demonstrates Loiseau's lyrical colourism as well as his sensibility for a subject which he tirelessly explored throughout his career.