George Le Febvre (1861-1912) - Le Manoir De La Boderie, 1907 - Exposé Au Salon De 1907, Paris

George Le Febvre (1861-1912)
Le Manoir de la Boderie, 1907
Oil on canvas
62 x 90.5 cm
75 x 103 (with frame)
Signed and dated lower right
Exhibited at the 1907 Salon

Georges Le Febvre was born in Berjou on October 14, 1861 and died in 1912.

He began his artistic education by taking drawing classes with Xénophon Hellouin at the municipal school in Caen, and exhibited in the city for the first time in 1883. He subsequently left the Nord region for Paris, where he apprenticed with the painter Luc-Olivier Merson. However, he did not settle entirely in Paris, but spent much of the year in Brittany, between Cancale and Saint-Malo, where he executed a large number of bright, colorful studies. Following the tragic death of his wife, Georges Le Febvre returned to his native village and began painting a series of large, austere scenes, mingling sadness, mystery and melancholy.

He gradually emerged from this depressive state thanks to the support of his friend Georges Moteley, a landscape painter, who convinced him to return to Paris. There, he began taking classes at the Académie Julian and joined Jules Lebevre's studio, marking the real start of his artistic career.

From 1896 until his death in 1912, the painter exhibited Normandy landscapes at the Salon des Artistes Français. He won a medal of merit in 1900 and a third-class medal in 1903. His short, separate brushstrokes make him akin to the Post-Impressionists, and this style brings him into close contact with his friend, the painter Henri Martin, who favors divisionist brushstrokes and light tones.

Ref: ZN8CFBP509