Bidspirit auction | Jean-Louis Paguenaud (1876-1952) - Andalusian

Jean-Louis Paguenaud (1876-1952) - Andalusian festival - “Fiesta andaluza” (Andalusian Festival), oil on board, Jean-Louis Paguenaud (1876–1952). Signed and inscribed (“cantatrice Dupré”) in the lower right corner. Jean-Louis Paguenaud is the pseudonym of Jean Philippe Paguenaud (1876–1952). He spent his childhood in Algiers, where he discovered the sea. When his father moved to Limoges, he studied at the School of Decorative Arts and worked in a porcelain factory. He furthered his training with William Bouguereau, delving into the world of seascapes and making numerous trips to Martinique and North Africa, which he captured in gouaches and drawings, which he exhibited in 1905 at the Salon des Indépendants. His brother Joseph-Louis died in combat in 1914 and, to honour his memory, he decided to sign his work with one of the names of the deceased. Appointed Official Painter of the French Navy in 1922, he lived for a time in Paris before returning to Limoges. He took part in a well-known voyage on the ship ‘Lamotte-Piquet’, which took him to Central and South America. His career can be divided into three periods: his formative years (1876-1902), his ‘Orientalist’ period (1902- 1921) and a third (1921-1942), when he was already an official painter of the Navy; he produced a few more works between 1942 and 1952. His work can be seen in important private collections and in museums such as the Navy Museum in Paris, the Naval School in Bordeaux, the Town Hall of Coussac- Bonneval, etc. This work depicts an exterior scene, a square in an Andalusian village, with a large number of figures dressed in the regional costume of the area celebrating a great festival. Movement is provided by couples and groups dancing in the centre, an orchestra on the left, diners on the right and several couples on horseback throughout the composition. The whole scene shares the limelight with the landscape: the façade of a church stands in front of a house and an old bridge, with a mountain in the background under a blue sky. Several characteristics of Paguenaud's work can be clearly seen: the light, which he would take from Algiers and all his travels; the compositional mastery with which he knows how to place a large number of figures; the blue sky blue sky, which can also be seen in his seascapes, etc. It is also worth noting the originality of the oil painting in the painter's artistic career due to its subject matter. · Dimensions: 233x5x175 int 213x152 cm