Louis Mathieu VERDILHAN (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, 1875 - Marsei - Lot 195

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Lot n° 195
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Louis Mathieu VERDILHAN (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, 1875 - Marsei - Lot 195
Louis Mathieu VERDILHAN (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, 1875 - Marseille, 1928) Auriol, l'Hôtel de Ville Oil on canvas Signed lower left 92 x 73 cm Provenance : private collection It is a typical Provencal village that the "carillonneur de couleurs" represents, a happy expression used by Daniel Chol in the book he dedicated to Verdilhan in 2005. Typical by its atmosphere, the life which impregnates it and its characteristic architecture of the small boroughs of Bouches-du-Rhône. Verdilhan, who usually depicts his views of villages and ports horizontally - in other words, in landscape format - opts here for a vertical format, adapted to the subject. The high square tower, which tells the time by its two dials, one facing the parish and the other the town hall square, appears in the perspective of the street, whose vanishing point is the mountain. The building with its three arched bays dates back to the 16th century. It was first a grain market and then housed the town hall from 1759 to 1969 and, from 1994, the Martin Duby museum. The building has hardly changed since the representation made by Verdilhan. The majestic double staircase encloses a fountain that is well known to the villagers, since Auriolan families traditionally take their wedding photographs there. The end of this street Augustine-Dupuy has always been a place of meeting and sharing for the inhabitants. The houses, adjoining each other, built in height, align their colorful and heterogeneous facades. The alley, shaded despite its southern exposure, benefits from a few rays of light skilfully orchestrated by the painter. From 1895 to 1928, Verdilhan occupied the same studio on rue Fort-Notre-Dame in Marseille. Despite the loss of his left eye in 1900, he persisted in his painting career. He participated in the "Salons des indépendants" and the "Salons d'automne" in Paris. He rubbed shoulders with Albert Marquet during the First World War and was influenced by him. The two companions continued to frequent each other in Marseille. After the war, he lived in Aix, Cassis and Toulon. In 1919 he married the youngest daughter of the Marseille painter Alfred Casile. Between 1913 and 1920, he painted more than 130 pictures of the Old Port of Marseille. His consecration came with an exhibition in New York in 1923. He died prematurely in 1928 at the age of 53. His taste for the bright colors of the pretty Provencal squares is expressed in the landscape format, such as La Place, oil on canvas, 91 x 102.5 cm, signed lower right, sold at Christie's London, "Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale", on 28/06/2017, lot n° 408. While the vertical format inspired him to create landscapes constructed of geometric lines such as L'Horloge de Roquevaire, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, signed at the bottom left, sold in Aix-en-Provence at Hours & de Valaurie ("Exceptional Aix collection of paintings of the Provencal School", 13 works by Verdilhan - 10 works by Chabaud) on 20/11/1993, lot n° 10.
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