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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.
Emerging from a thickly wooded forest, amidst flurries of delicate white snowflakes, five majestic horses and their riders confront the viewer in this magical and beautifully evocative winter landscape. Painted in 2013, Promenade à cheval presents on a large and impressive scale one of André Brasilier’s favourite and most enduring subjects: galloping horses within nature. With a career that spans the 20th and 21st Century, the French artist Brasilier studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris when he was 20. Three years later he won the highly coveted award, the Prix de Rome for painting. Over the course of his long and prolific career, Brasilier has had retrospectives of his work held in museums across the globe. With his distinctive, elegant graphic style and rich use of colour, Brasilier transforms depictions of nature into imaginary and enchanting landscapes.
In Promenade à cheval the dark horses that appear from the snow-filled, russet-coloured forest are depicted on a large scale, appearing resplendent and majestic as they confront the viewer. Brasilier has used pieces of gold leaf on the bridles and reins of the stately animals. Glinting in the light, the gold pieces lend the scene a fantastical enchantment, as if the horses and their riders are the legendary figures of a past time. The horse is one of the most prominent subjects of Brasilier’s art, as the artist described in an interview, ‘As for the horse, I really like this animal, as much for its beauty as for the harmony that it has with nature… I love life, and horses, with their forms and their ardour, delight and intrigue me’ (Interview with André Brasilier in his workshop, http://brasilier.fr/content/119/124/interview-e).
Emerging from a thickly wooded forest, amidst flurries of delicate white snowflakes, five majestic horses and their riders confront the viewer in this magical and beautifully evocative winter landscape. Painted in 2013, Promenade à cheval presents on a large and impressive scale one of André Brasilier’s favourite and most enduring subjects: galloping horses within nature. With a career that spans the 20th and 21st Century, the French artist Brasilier studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris when he was 20. Three years later he won the highly coveted award, the Prix de Rome for painting. Over the course of his long and prolific career, Brasilier has had retrospectives of his work held in museums across the globe. With his distinctive, elegant graphic style and rich use of colour, Brasilier transforms depictions of nature into imaginary and enchanting landscapes.
In Promenade à cheval the dark horses that appear from the snow-filled, russet-coloured forest are depicted on a large scale, appearing resplendent and majestic as they confront the viewer. Brasilier has used pieces of gold leaf on the bridles and reins of the stately animals. Glinting in the light, the gold pieces lend the scene a fantastical enchantment, as if the horses and their riders are the legendary figures of a past time. The horse is one of the most prominent subjects of Brasilier’s art, as the artist described in an interview, ‘As for the horse, I really like this animal, as much for its beauty as for the harmony that it has with nature… I love life, and horses, with their forms and their ardour, delight and intrigue me’ (Interview with André Brasilier in his workshop, http://brasilier.fr/content/119/124/interview-e).