Pierre Brune
View of the Seine, Épinay-sur-Seine, ca. 1911
Oil on canvas signed lower right
Dimensions: 40.5 x 60 cm
With frame: 56 x 76 cm
Price : 12 000 euros.
It is most certainly near his family home located “Rue du bord de l’eau” in Epinay- sur- Seine that Pierre Brune painted this youthful work. In it, he describes his changing landscape and fantastic colors.
Here, the water reflects the white light of the cloudy sky and the surrounding vegetation in a play of mirrors. The artist plays with the reflections in the Seine, creating a quasi-abstract work in which we can get lost and doubt where we are.
The work is strong, vigorous, expressionist and modern. The unctuous and structured matter.
Biography
Pierre Boulaine, also known as Pierre Brune, was born in Epinay-sur-Seine and painted landscapes, still lifes and a few portraits.
Born into a family of the merchant bourgeoisie, he was destined to take up his father’s trade: commercial traveler and cloth merchant.
From the age of twenty, he traveled to the South of France, meeting the painters Lenoir and Lucien Andrieu.
A self-taught artist, he exhibited his work for the first time in 1910, on the advice of the circle of painters around him. On the eve of the First World War, he participated in the creative emulation of the Art Vivant group. In 1916, he moved to Céret. Encouraged by Picasso, Braque and Juan Gris who were resident there between 1911 and 1913, he created a museum of modern art and took the position of curator. He receives gifts from Matisse, Chagall, Maillol, Manolo, Masson and many others.
He paints in Épinay-sur-Seine, Marseille, Montauban and Lyon in a rigorous style, then, from 1916, depicts landscapes of Céret.
Bibliography:
. art. “Pierre Brune”, Bénézit, Oxford Art Online, 2011
Museums:
. Paris : Centre Pompidou – musée nationale d’art moderne, musée d’art moderne de la ville de Céret.
Exhibitions :
. Last exhibition: “Pierre Brune”, Museum of Modern Art of the city of Céret, Céret, December 3, 2016 – March 5, 2017.
