Ernest Joseph Laurent (1859-1929) - Impressionist Landscape At The River And At The Pole, 1885

Ernest Joseph Laurent (1859-1929)
Impressionist Landscape At The River And The Pole, 1885
Oil on canvas
40.5 x 31cm
60.5 x 45.5 cm with its frame
Signed and dated lower left

A pupil of Henri Lehmann at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Ernest Laurent was influenced by the Impressionists and became friends with Georges Seurat, Edmond Aman-Jean and Henri Le Sidaner1. In 1885, his Annunciation, exhibited at the Salon, was purchased by the State, which allowed him to travel to Italy. From Rome he traveled to Assisi, where he had a deep mystical experience that would have a lasting influence on his art.
In 1889, he won the Prix de Rome with Christ and the Paralytic. From 1896, he mainly painted female portraits, which would be among his favorite themes. In 1900, during a private exhibition at Durand-Ruel, he received an order for four panels for the Sorbonne in Paris.

On October 31, 1912, Ernest Laurent was made an officer of the Legion of Honor after being knighted in 1903. He was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1919. He was then appointed professor at the École des beaux -arts from 1919 to 1929, and member of the Council of National Museums. In 1923, he shared an exhibition with Georges Petit with Le Sidaner and Henri Martin.

Heir to the Impressionist technique, tempted by symbolism in its most intimate form, Ernest Laurent paid particular attention to women, whose fragility he associates with flowers and the mysteries of inner life. He puts an intimate poetry in the atmosphere with which he surrounds his models in their daily life, in the living room, in the garden. His deep religious devotion runs through most of his works. This aspect of his life will go against the materialism of a Seurat from which he will gradually detach.

Laurent produced remarkable lithographs, which take on a melted appearance, and which were published among others in L'Estampe moderne (1897), the Gazette des beaux-arts (1901), and L'Art et les Artistes (1906).

Ernest Laurent is buried in Paris at the Père-Lachaise cemetery (20th division).

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