Achille Laugé

Private Collection, Belgium

Narbonne, Salle de l’Arsenal, Société des beaux-arts de Narbonne, première exposition artistique, 1893, no. 319 (titled Amandier en fleurs)
Kochi-Utsunomiya-Kyoto-Tokyo, Georges Seurat et le néo-impressionnisme: 1885-1905, 2002, no. 102, illustrated in the catalogue
Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse, Achille Laugé: le point, la ligne, la lumière, 2010, no. 29, illustrated in the catalogue

Work is in excellent condition. Canvas is lightly lined and edges are reinforced with tape. Surface is clean and impasto is very well preserved. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent.
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"In this dazzling vision of spring blossom under the midday sun, Seurat’s lessons are magnificently interpreted by Laugé. The chromatic harmony is chiefly derived from the three primary colors and Laugé’s mastery of the Divisionist technique is so exacting that the optical blending ensues flawlessly. This reduced palette further accentuates the Japanese character of the subject and composition.

Adapting his touch for each different element of the painting, the artist alternates little dabs of white with blue shadows to define the flowers of the almond tree, whilst delicate horizontal hatches of red and blue punctuate the length of the trunk. Numerous white specks on the ground and the sun-drenched facade of the building soften the localized color, intensifying the effect of the sun’s heat. The saturated blue of the sky becomes a screen to offset the tree in all its glory. The present work is one of the rare examples of a landscape by the artist where the azure, instead of appearing faded by the light, tends toward a marine tone, and deepens by dint of being blue.

The violet shadows, orange rooftops and the two bands of green, one at the base of the low wall which borders the lateral staircase of the house, the other running along the lower edge of the painting, make up the complementary harmonies to this prism.

Far from seeking the evanescence of form typical of an impressionistic vision, Laugé uses light in the present work as a way to structure the space and lines of the composition. L’Arbre en fleur is the perfect testament to Bourdelle’s declaration that his friend was a 'builder of light.'”

—Nicole Tamburini in Laugé (exhibition catalogue), Musée de Douai, 2010, translated from the French