GUSTAVE LOISEAU | Tournedos-sur-Seine, neige, givre, soleil

Durand-Ruel, Paris
Private Collection, Papeete, Tahiti
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 8, 1989, lot 59
Private Collection, France
Schiller & Bodo, New York
Acquired from the above on April 28, 2006

The canvas has not been lined. There is a vertical stretcher bar mark running through the canvas. There is some scattered hairline craquelure, most notably in the sky. The surface is richly textured and the colors are fresh. There is some minor frame abrasion along all four edges. Under UV light: there is a minor pindot stroke of inpainting to the center of the top edge and two pindot strokes to the upper half of the left edge. Some original pigments fluoresce. The work is in overall very good condition,
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted precisely at the turn of the twentieth century, Loiseau’s Tournedos-sur-Seine, neige, givre, soleil depicts a farmhouse on the banks of the river Seine. This wonderfully evocative composition is imbued with the charm of a blustery landscape on a brilliant winter day, the rays of the sun shimmering off a fresh blanket of snow. The extraordinarily rich surface, built up with vigorous brushwork and dappled with paint, exemplifies the technical virtuosity Loiseau had achieved by the end of the 1890s. His command of Impressionist technique, combined with traces of Post-Impressionist interest in harmonized color, allowed the artist to capture not only the ephemeral effects of light but also the fleeting feelings of atmosphere (see fig. 1). Despite the season, the present landscape is far from barren, the scene enlivened by thick and staccato impasto in the sky, the house and the lone tree. The immediacy of the work places the viewer at the river's edge in this tiny hamlet in Normandy just as Loiseau would have stood, as a devotee to painting en plein air.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Didier Imbert.