Dimensions: Height: 46 in (116.84
cm)Width: 58.5 in (148.59 cm)Depth: 2.5 in (6.35 cm)
1881 Oil on Canvas
SOLD
A beautiful large and important masterpiece by Francois
Alfred Delobbe.
A similar artwork old master was sold April 18 2008 at
Sotheby’s for $181,000.00 + 20%
Delobbe’s two most powerful inspirations were his deep
connection to the French countryside and William Bouguereau, his teacher at the
École des Beaux-Arts. Born in Paris and absorbed in his studies for so many
years, the young artist had few opportunities to escape the city. It was not
until Delobbe journeyed to Concarneau, the native home of his friend and fellow
artist Alfred Guillou, that he began to explore Brittany’s rocky fields and
ancient villages. While the region was painted by many of Delobbe’s contemporaries,
most famously Jules Breton, Delobbe’s Parisian upbringing perhaps made him
particularly sensitive to the effects of the open skies, verdant fields, and
sweeping, sandy beaches. Most of his traveling took place in spring and summer,
and he used the plein air sketches completed then during the winter in his City
Studio. Many of his favorite models came from the areas around Beuzec-cap-Sizun
and Lanriec,
As with his mentor’s canvases, Delobbe’s smooth brushwork
erases the presence of the painter and creates a balance between immobile,
static form and rich surface details, textures, and colors. Visual evidence
that a rustic, rural way of life remained, such portraits eased late nineteenth
century anxieties about France’s growing industrialization. There is a
naturalistic truth to Delobbe’s representation of the Characters, the skin
slightly reddened by rough winds and harsh sun, taking a break on a pile of Hay
by her infant and older daughter. Almost effortlessly, from her tool to the
back right side, while on her lap rests a large sifting tool. While this
process was notoriously labor-intensive, Delobbe’s working woman reveals little
of the effort involved. With her stoic stance and calm expression the artist
creates an epic figure to join the ranks of Breton’s strong-armed field hand in
or the maid busy haying in Julien Dupré’s The Harvester (figs 2, 3). In her
solemnity, Delobbe’s sifter becomes an icon of rural labor, her powerful
strength and work never ceasing, her connection to the land monumental, yet
sensitively portrayed.
