Marine, Raymond NORMAND 1919/2000, Landscape of the Côte bleue, in Provence

Marine, Raymond NORMAND 1919/2000, Landscape of the Côte bleue, in Provence

Signed: bottom Raymond Normand, referenced painter and side

Oil painting on canvas, in very good condition

Subject: Marine, landscape of the Côte Bleue in Provence

Period: circa 1950/60

Size : with frame 46 x 56 cm - canvas 33 x 41 cm ( 6F )

Frame : painted wooden frame, from the period of the painting, in good condition with minor wear.

Raymond NORMAND 1919 / 2000 :
Born on November 14, 1919 in Auby, between Valenciennes and Douai, to a mining family, son of Maria Duhem and Just Normand, who was wounded in the Great War.
Raymond Normand spent his childhood in Flers-sur-Escrebieux, until the age of ten. His childhood was marked by illness, osteomyelitis, which kept him bedridden for two long years. In 1937, for these health reasons, his parents decided to move to Marseille, where Raymond Normand enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-arts, where he took sculpture and drawing classes and befriended the sculptor César.
His talent was noticed and he was selected for the Académie de France in Rome, housed since its creation in 1666 by Louis XIV in the prestigious Villa Medici overlooking the Eternal City from the heights of the Pincio.
After the Second World War, he worked for farmers in Lambesc, where his passion for nature and his vocation as a landscape and animal painter were awakened. At the same time, he was fascinated by the work of Vincent Van Gogh, whose influence is evident in some of his works.
In 1950, he settled with his parents in Ventabren, at Trou-du-Loup, in the shadow of the ruins of the château of the Lords of Les Baux, in a Virgilian countryside bathed in Mediterranean light. Here, he lived very simply, close to nature, among olive trees, goats and cats, according to an ideal of life that fame would not alter. The house he built with his father is extremely rustic, and for a long time had neither running water nor electricity. A cistern collects rainwater and the house is lit by candles. We rise and set with the sun, in complete harmony with nature. Day after day, year after year, the artist criss-crosses the surrounding countryside, planting his easel in the picturesque spots that abound along its rivers and villages: Grans, Lambesc, Ventabren, the Arc and the Touloubre.

His style asserts itself and his work diversifies. He works in oil with brush or knife, and masters the techniques of wash, charcoal, dry or oil pastel and Indian ink. His method, based on small, round strokes, is reminiscent of pointillism, with an impressionist effect. Raymond Normand, a landscape and wildlife painter, also excelled in the art of portraiture and self-portraiture.
Before passing away at the age of 81, and following a family dispute, Raymond Normand drew up a will in which he bequeathed his entire body of work to the commune of Ventabren (1,400 paintings and drawings), as well as his real estate and 150,000 euros. After lengthy proceedings initiated by the artist's nephews, the French Supreme Court finally recognized the commune of Ventabren as the universal legatee of the painter's last will and testament.
An article in the August 31, 2000 issue of the newspaper La Provence referred to "the unclear fate of the assets bequeathed by the painter", who died on March 12, 2000. "What will become of the house and the impressive number of paintings it contains? Twelve years later, the question remains. The canvases are no longer in the house (rendered unsaleable, along with the land, by a subsequent amendment to the town planning scheme). They are stored in two rooms of the wine cooperative, where they are in danger of being forgotten for good, unless the local inhabitants object.
It would be desirable for not only the people of Ventabrennais, but also visitors passing through, to be able to admire at their leisure the paintings and drawings of an artist as talented as he was generous towards his adopted village. For the time being, the municipality remains deathly silent on the matter.
Born and active in Spain in the late 19th century, he specialized in post-Impressionist still-life paintings of flowers.
Source Bénézit

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Painting on view at our gallery in L'Isle sur la Sorgue (France), weekends.
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A1756

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