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Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Maurice Garnier Archives.
Early 1970s, whilst living with his muse Annabel, Bernard Buffet bought the Villiers Le Mahieu Castle, in Yvelines, near Paris. He worked intensely during the ensuing four years on a series of larges canvasses, revisiting themes of his particular interest at that time, including still-lives, interior scenes, bouquets and harbour cities. In 1972 and then again between 1973 and 1974, Buffet undertook an impressively sized group of works depicting different Harbours and their changing atmospheres in several different locations throughout France, focusing on the boats and trawlers he found docked there, As early as 1964, Buffet showed signs of interest for harbours and boats upon publishing a series of engravings depicting the Breton coast, dedicated to his mother in memory of their holidays spent there. Probably painted after photographs, postcard and from his own mementoes, he painted harbours of Tréboul, Sable d’Olonne, Rouen, Rochelle, Quimper, Marseilles, Granville, Saint-Tropez, Le Havre, Brest, Le Havre and others.
Thoughout this series of works, in examples such as Le bateau Ecole, Dieppe Seine Maritime, or Vannes, remorqueurs dans le bassin, Buffet paints with an intensity of feeling, evoking his passionate sense of nostalgia. As is typical of his best recognised painterly style, the lines in Harbour scenes are harsh and arrow like, with a deliberately limited chromatic range: a use of brown and white for boats, blue and beige to describe the buildings, and his own particular brand of grey, black and white charging through the sky. His rigorous gothic, expressionist technique is a reflection of his own personality: individualistic, elegant, and melancholic. In Le bateau Ecole, Dieppe Seine Maritime, or Vannes, remorqueurs dans le bassin, Buffet used this same procedure of ‘schematization’; the systematic lengthening of the buildings’ black lines with a palette of cold colour and shapes that evoke the same ‘dark’ aura. Architectural in construction, dramatically executed and carefully composed, Buffet’s series of harbours achieves his characteristically melancholic romantic beauty combined with an intense realism on a grand scale.
Early 1970s, whilst living with his muse Annabel, Bernard Buffet bought the Villiers Le Mahieu Castle, in Yvelines, near Paris. He worked intensely during the ensuing four years on a series of larges canvasses, revisiting themes of his particular interest at that time, including still-lives, interior scenes, bouquets and harbour cities. In 1972 and then again between 1973 and 1974, Buffet undertook an impressively sized group of works depicting different Harbours and their changing atmospheres in several different locations throughout France, focusing on the boats and trawlers he found docked there, As early as 1964, Buffet showed signs of interest for harbours and boats upon publishing a series of engravings depicting the Breton coast, dedicated to his mother in memory of their holidays spent there. Probably painted after photographs, postcard and from his own mementoes, he painted harbours of Tréboul, Sable d’Olonne, Rouen, Rochelle, Quimper, Marseilles, Granville, Saint-Tropez, Le Havre, Brest, Le Havre and others.
Thoughout this series of works, in examples such as Le bateau Ecole, Dieppe Seine Maritime, or Vannes, remorqueurs dans le bassin, Buffet paints with an intensity of feeling, evoking his passionate sense of nostalgia. As is typical of his best recognised painterly style, the lines in Harbour scenes are harsh and arrow like, with a deliberately limited chromatic range: a use of brown and white for boats, blue and beige to describe the buildings, and his own particular brand of grey, black and white charging through the sky. His rigorous gothic, expressionist technique is a reflection of his own personality: individualistic, elegant, and melancholic. In Le bateau Ecole, Dieppe Seine Maritime, or Vannes, remorqueurs dans le bassin, Buffet used this same procedure of ‘schematization’; the systematic lengthening of the buildings’ black lines with a palette of cold colour and shapes that evoke the same ‘dark’ aura. Architectural in construction, dramatically executed and carefully composed, Buffet’s series of harbours achieves his characteristically melancholic romantic beauty combined with an intense realism on a grand scale.