Frantz Charlet
Family beach run
Oil on canvasSigned lower right Dimensions: 38 x 56 cm With frame: 57 x 74 cm.
Price : sold
Frantz Charlet represents a family occupied with the pleasure of horse riding on the beach. Animals, horses, a dog, a few human figures, the child, the parents, speed, breaking waves and racing: everything is there for the painter to experiment with the representation of movement. The painting almost breathes the sea air. One wonders if it was the wind from the sea that lifted the painter’s hand when he was painting, so much the material shows dynamism and liveliness. The painter is premature, he starts at fifteen in Ghent, exhibits a still life and sells it. He took lessons from Jean-François Portaëls in Brussels, left for Paris and joined the studio of Léon Gérôme, Jules Lefebvre and Carolus-Duran from 1880 to 1882. A friend of Théo van Rysselberghe, he undertook a long journey with him through Spain and North Africa. He goes through Nice, a merchant buys all his studies from him. He joined Brussels in 1883 and founded the Groupe des XX with Ensor and van Rysselberghe. The movement continues with Free Aesthetics. In 1908, he exhibited his paintings in Paris, at the George Petit gallery. Critics hail his painting of landscapes as well as interior scenes. A follower of Seurat one day, weary of the laws of optics the next, he nonetheless undertook research into light vibrations and resonances, focusing on tonal relationships, until his forms seemed shaped by color alone. Museums: – Paris Musée d’Orsay, Brussels (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). Bibliography: – Gérald Schurr, Pierre Cabane, “Dictionnaire des petits maîtres de la peinture”, 1820-1920, Tome 1, Paris, les éditions de l’amateur, 1996, p. 253.
