Maurice SAVIN (1894 – 1973)
A cubist painting by Maurice Savin of the village of Domme in the Dordogne, circa 1920. The bastide of Domme, one of the jewels of the Périgord Noir, is represented by the artist in volume and magnified by a warm and harmonious palette.
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
Titled on the back ” Landscape (Domme) “, numbered 1
Dimensions: 60 x 76 cm
With frame: 81 x 96,5 cm
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A cubist and synthetic work with harmonious colors
Maurice Savin interprets here the view of the village of Domme through geometrical forms; a technique of painting in volume. The influence of Cézanne “the father of modern art” is felt.
The red of the roofs, the pink of the houses and the orange of the cultivated fields stand out against the deep green of the vegetation in a beautiful harmony of color.
Domme, one of the most beautiful bastides of the South-West, jewel of the Black Périgord.
Overlooking the Dordogne River by 150 meters, this 13th century royal bastide offers a panoramic view of the valley’s landscapes, marked by cultivated plains and the dark green oak forests that give this part of the Périgord its “Black” Périgord name.
Biography:
Maurice Savin, a native of the Drôme, is an artist of great sensitivity and a very personal poetry.
After studying in Valencia, he entered the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Savin is a complete artist, he exercises his talents in a diversity of means of artistic expression such as ceramics, tapestry (a passage by the Manufacture de Sèvres), stained glass, wall decoration of public or private buildings (wall decoration for the town hall of Montélimar in 1936), and engraving. But he never abandons pure painting.
His iconography is characterized by a strong presence of genre scenes of the countryside, seasonal work in the fields or orchards, but also female nudes.
In his first studio, on the Champ de Mars, he already had a great deal of discipline and sought to refine his palette to retain only the six or seven colors he worked with and to obtain the “color of light” that would flood his future canvases. Very quickly, his oils on canvas sold well. Parisian galleries are asking for it. His very first exhibition took place in 1921. He regularly exhibited at official salons. Numerous prizes, up to the Legion of Honor, punctuated his artistic career, which he led with perspicacity and tenacity.
During his lifetime, despite his legendary discretion, major retrospectives were organized at the Museum of Valencia (1955) and the Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice (1969), while the Museum of Modern Art in Paris paid him a posthumous tribute in 1979. And if some monographs are devoted to his work, his admirers regret that they have not yet allowed him to find his rightful place in the history of art of the twentieth century.
Public collections
– Wall decoration of the main staircase of the town hall of Montélimar . (Drome)
– La spiaggia a Sestri” 1952 prize of the city of Sestri Levante (Italy)
Museums
– Paris, The Petit Palais, the Museum of Modern Art
– Grenoble, Sèvres
•Internationally:
Stockholm, Gothenburg, Faenza, Cairo, Lausanne, London…
Sources
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Savin
https://www.expertisez.com/magazine/maurice-savin-bonnard-drome
https://www.docantic.com/fr/page/93/maurice-savin-1894-1973-biographie
