Louis Arraou (xix-xx) Navy, Circa 1920/1925

Novelist with for example in the 1930s the publication of a science fiction novel "A Martian on Earth", Louis Arraou is also illustrated in painting as evidenced by our rare painting painted with a knife. Self-taught and complete artist.

Louis Arraou (XIX-XX)
Navy, circa 1925
Oil on canvas
46 x 55 cm (59 x 67 cm framed)
In its original frame and signed lower left

Here is what we read in Le Gaulois in 1925 about an exhibition of the artist at the John Levy gallery
A TODAY'S PAINTER LOUIS ARRAOU

For today's amateurs, saturated with paintings which demand the charm of the unexpected from an artificial excess, and which thus solicit attention with an ostentation without sincerity, it is a real joy which is very little given, to finally find a simple and fresh talent. The paintings that Mr. Louis Arraou is currently exhibiting at the Galerie John Lévy, near Place Vendôme, are among these. They are pleasing first of all by an accent of truth which is not feigned, and which is found in the analysis, in the very choice of the subjects. Mr. Arraou likes to represent nature in its highest and most radiant views. These are views of the Hautes-Alpes, with their rustic wooden houses, their dazzling green pastures, the distant snowy peaks or the Mediterranean horizon with the eternally blue sea vibrant with sunshine, and, in the foreground, the old Provencal boats stranded on the shore, the "repaired and picturesque tartanes or, seeking even further south an exotic inspiration, Mr. Arraou likes to note the play of shadows in a small Moroccan street, the female haik" brushing the walls tight, the light breaking through in the distance among the low houses. His sincerity is absolute. He had only him for master. Accomplished artist, lover of good music, talented novelist, he puts at the service of his exact vision of things a beautiful wide craft by which the color spreads and bursts under the knife. He is an artist who creates joy.

Ref: KIUSV4E5VQ