ANDRE BARBIER | Les Andelys, 1911
Oil on Canvas
60 x 73 cms / 23½ x 28¾ inches
Signed 'André Barbier' (lower right)
From an elevated vantage point, the Seine curves through a broad valley, its pale surface receding into a softly defined horizon. On the right, steep, chalky slopes descend towards the river, dotted with vegetation and scattered buildings that mark the town of Les Andelys. The outline of Château Gaillard is faintly discernible on the hill above, reduced to a muted silhouette against the sky. The left bank forms a darker, wooded mass, creating a wide channel of water between the opposing slopes. The composition is structured in sweeping horizontal bands of land and river, unified by closely related tones of blue and green. Oil is applied in thin, lightly worked layers, with broken touches describing foliage in the foreground. Painted in 1911 during the artist’s engagement with the Normandy landscape, Les Andelys reflects a sustained interest in elevated river views and the historic sites along the Seine.
Inspired by his Impressionist forbears, André Barbier delighted in depicting verdant forests and luminous seascapes at different times of the day and in a variety of atmospheric conditions. Like many of his contemporaries in early nineteenth-century Paris, Barbier travelled extensively in pursuit of subjects for his landscapes.
In 1916 Barbier met Claude Monet and the two artists immediately struck up a friendship. Monet was so taken with Barbiers works that he sponsored an exhibition of his works with a preface by Monets biographer and friend, Gustave Geffroy, who urged him to build of mist and light, a world of poetry. Although a follower of the Impressionists, Barbiers style is wholeheartedly distinct. Barbier built up compositions using delicate layers of paint in a post-impressionist manner, often using a flickering outline to the forms within the landscape and imbuing his compositions with a delicate haze of light.
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