Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1930s.
The artist, French Rémy Hetreau (1903-2001) has of late become very sought
after in China, where some of his paintings have sold for 5 figure sums.
This strikes me as unsurprising, as his work does combine the colours of
a European post-impressionist with a sense of equilibrium and discretion
often found in Asian art.
Rémy Hétreau was born in the Loiret region, and studied at the Ecole des
beaux Arts in Orléon, and later at the Ecole Boulle in Paris. A member of
the Salon d'Automne and the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, Hétreau was a
craftsman as well as an artist. He created theater decors, illustrated
books, and taught applied arts.
The most recent retrospective of his work in the Charles Peguy Museum in Orléans was titled : Rémy Héreau - An enchanted world.
As art critic René Barjavel (1911-1985) wrote about about Hetreau:
"When a man is bombarded with ugliness, he grimaces, gets worn, gets
bitter and ages. Hétreau has miraculous eyes, which simply do not let
ugliness enter. The miracle of his eye, that's love. He loves everything he
looks at, be that landscapes, objects, women. He paints them with
discriminating friendship, tenderly, and sometimes gently teasing, which
shows them as they are, but beautiful. In the world around him, it is
always springtime. He has a blossoming tree in his heart.
Our painting is a rare work from the prewar years, and is signed and dated 1939. It is simply titled "Fleurs" (Flowers) and bears the artist's Paris address on the verso. Measuring 80 x 65 cm, there is some stable craquelure and minor chips that have been consolidated. The overall framed size in its original wood carved frame is 99 x 85.
Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1930s.
Modern french & continental pictures selected by a former french auction house expert
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Skippings Fine Arts Profile Page
Flowers, 1939 an Enchanted World Large Antique French Oil by Rémy Hétreau (1913-2001)
