Fauve Masterpiece: The Lone Fisherman in the Centre of Paris, Circa 1910: By French Camden Group Artist Who Was Walter Sickert's Best Friend Oil on Board

The scene feels so immediate as if we were right there, back in the 1910s, watching the little lone fisherman on his boat on the Seine, lost to the world, as it would appear.

Works by Maurice Asselin from the 1910s - his fauve period - are instantaneously recognisable. Mauves, pinks and blues that are as subtle as they are striking, evoke the tranquility of a spring dawn. Rigorously modernist, unusual composition add interest, while unusual highlights of colour - like the fishing rod in the present composition, which is yellow (!) - spark delight.

Maurice Asselin (1882-1947) was Walter Sickert's best friend and the French artist most closely connected to the Camden Town Group.

Many of his contemporaries, including Roger Fry, considered him one of the most exciting French artists of his generation.

Asselin had a one-man show in London with Carfax and Co in 1915, a gallery close to the Camden Group which, according to Paul Nash, was 'probably the most distinguished and exclusive gallery in London at this time’.

In Paris, Maurice Asselin had one man shows at the mythical Galerie Charpentier, the Galerie Marcel Bernheim, and the Galerie Druet.

In fact: his one man show at the Galerie Druet took place in the same year as their retrospective of Pierre Bonnard, which will give you an idea how highly regarded was his art.

More recently, an exhibition of the artist's work has also taken place at the Museum of Pont Aven. Asselin, when living in Brittany was part of the Pont Aven movement.

Art critics describe Maurice Asselin's work as literary, sensitive, restrained. Walter Sickert calls him: "not only one of the most distinguished artists among the younger artists, but also one of the many sane and normal individualities who are really the important constituants of modern French painting".

Paintings by the artist are in museums all over the world, from Moscow to New York via Christchurch, New Zealand. Four of his works are in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge owns an oil, as does the Hepworth, Wakefield.

Our oil on board measures 27 x 35 cm and is signed at the lower right. On the verso is the old label of the "Impressions de Paris" exhibition at the highly reputed Galerie Couleur du Temps, rue Arsène Houssaye, in Paris' 8th arrondissement. The painting is presented in a limed 1930s art deco frame. The overall framed size is 46 x 55 cm.

Nous parlons français, und wir sprechen auch Deutsch! Paintings may be viewed in Norwich and in Paris, as well as in London and Cambridge by appointment. Please contact us if you would like further details and images of an artwork.