Roland Oudot (1897 – 1981)
pastoral landscape
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
Size: 83.5 x 109.5cm
Roland Oudot was born in 1897 in Paris; he studied at the National School of Decorative Arts between 1912 and 1914. In 1915, he was recruited to assist Léon Bakst. The master of the Russian ballet completes the training of the young painter: Roland Oudot discovers the work of Cézanne, Bonnard and Vuillard.
He paints a countryside landscape at harvest time. In the foreground, the wheat is gathered in bundles, behind, a white horse grazes. On the left, a peasant is busy with his metal hoe; a woman is resting beside him in the shade of a tree.
Framed by trees, the dirt road leads to the village; it makes the connection between the front of the back of the table. The colors are strong and sharp, like a hot summer day.
Between 1930 and 1960, he formed, with Brianchon, Legueult, Caillard, Cavaillès, Limouse, Planson and Terechkovitch, the group of Poetic Reality.
The painters share the same studio; they decide to come together under the name given, in 1949, by Gisèle d’Assailly, journalist and critic. If their technique and their style differ, the painters unite around their attraction for color and poetic figuration.
In Paris, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and at the Salon des Tuileries; he participated in exhibitions in New York, London and Geneva. The Palais de Chaillot in Paris is decorated with frescoes by his hand, like the amphitheater of the National Institute of Agronomy and the reception hall of the liner Ferdinand de Lesseps.
Bibliography:
• Lydia Harambourg, “The School of Paris, 1945–1965, dictionary of painters”, Paris, Ides et Calendes, 525 pages
Museums:
• In Paris: Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris; National Museum of Modern Art – George Pompidou Center; municipal contemporary art fund of the city of Paris; National Center for Plastic Arts.
• In France: Nantes art museums; modern and contemporary art museum of Saint-Étienne Métropole; Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; Cantini Museum in Marseilles; Grenoble Museum; Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts; Libourne Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology; Goya Museum in Castres.
