Lot 520: Henri Delavallée (1862-1943)

Paysage breton
signed and dated 'H Delavallée 86' (lower left)
pastel on paper
11 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. (28 x 41.6 cm.)
Executed in 1886

Acquired by the present owner in Brittany in the 1980s.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

Born in Rheims, Henri Delavallée studied in Paris under Carolus Duran and Luc Olivier Merson, and was known as a brilliant student and skillful draughtsman. He first visited Pont-Aven in 1881. He was drawn to the village's charm and the local scenery, and he and his wife, the painter Gabrielle Moreau, returned there during the following summers. He met Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard in 1886, during their first sojourns in Pont-Aven.

Dating from exactly this period, the present pastel is one of Delavalleé's rare early pastels executed in Pont-Aven. It depicts a farm in Brittany in a flat landscape surrounded by typical Breton low grey stone wall. Using the wall to divide his composition into three different areas with their own rather monochromatic colours - the field, the house, and the sky - Delavalleé is stepping into new territories much in line with Gauguin's and Bernard's ideas at the time.

Jean Sutter has noted that 'His intelligence and lucidity would not allow him to adopt any technique without discussing it or looking elsewhere' (in Les Néo-impressionistes, Paris,1970, p. 172). In 1887, the year after this drawing was done, Delavalleé met Georges Seurat and Camille Pissarro, and quickly adopted their pointillist style. In 1893 the artist and his wife went to Turkey, where they remained for nine years; he had much success in Istanbul with his Orientalist subjects. He returned to Paris in 1902, and finally settled in Pont-Aven eight years later.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.