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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a certificate from Alexis Brasilier and it will be included in the forthcoming André Brasilier catalogue raisonné.
L'étang le soir presents one of French artist André Brasilier's favourite and most enduring subjects, a scene of galloping horses through a landscape. Throughout his career that spans the 20th and 21st century, Brasilier painted numerous scenes of nature, often filled with horses, which he captured in his distinctive graphic style, using rich, often-saturated colours. Under a glowing sky streaked with shades of pink, in L'éang le soir, a group of six horses dash along the bank of a pond amidst a dusky landscape punctuated with vertical trees. Depicted with simple white outlines, the horses and their riders appear as silhouettes, some of which are filled with a shade of burning red, as if caught by the light of the setting sun. The scene is reflected in the still water of the pond below, creating a mirage of deep blues and rich greens.
The powerful, rhythmic movement that the cantering horses evoke in L'étang le soir is repeated in the dominant horizontal lines of the horizon and waterline, which contrast with the thin, vertical trunks of the row of trees that borders the scene. The harmonious composition is echoed in the harmony of the subject matter itself; man and nature appear as one as the horse riders move through the otherwise deserted landscape. For Brasilier, it was horses that provided this graceful concordance, he explained, 'As for the horse. I really like this animal, as much for its beauty, as for the harmony that it has with nature. In nature, the horse gives a sense of scale. It provides interesting proportions with the sea and the sky, for example. I love life, and horses, with their forms and their ardour, delight and intrigue me' (Interview with Andr Brasilier in his workshop, https://brasilier.fr/content/119/124/interview-e).
L'étang le soir presents one of French artist André Brasilier's favourite and most enduring subjects, a scene of galloping horses through a landscape. Throughout his career that spans the 20th and 21st century, Brasilier painted numerous scenes of nature, often filled with horses, which he captured in his distinctive graphic style, using rich, often-saturated colours. Under a glowing sky streaked with shades of pink, in L'éang le soir, a group of six horses dash along the bank of a pond amidst a dusky landscape punctuated with vertical trees. Depicted with simple white outlines, the horses and their riders appear as silhouettes, some of which are filled with a shade of burning red, as if caught by the light of the setting sun. The scene is reflected in the still water of the pond below, creating a mirage of deep blues and rich greens.
The powerful, rhythmic movement that the cantering horses evoke in L'étang le soir is repeated in the dominant horizontal lines of the horizon and waterline, which contrast with the thin, vertical trunks of the row of trees that borders the scene. The harmonious composition is echoed in the harmony of the subject matter itself; man and nature appear as one as the horse riders move through the otherwise deserted landscape. For Brasilier, it was horses that provided this graceful concordance, he explained, 'As for the horse. I really like this animal, as much for its beauty, as for the harmony that it has with nature. In nature, the horse gives a sense of scale. It provides interesting proportions with the sea and the sky, for example. I love life, and horses, with their forms and their ardour, delight and intrigue me' (Interview with Andr Brasilier in his workshop, https://brasilier.fr/content/119/124/interview-e).