Brunon: Rugged Landscape Nature And Ecology, Modernist Oil Provenance

A beautiful, haunting rugged landscape of the Auvergne, the rural, mountainous area in the heart of France, by Georges Brunon (1925-2016)

Having completed his studies at the National Academy of Fine Arts in 1950, Georges Brunon - a literate, thoughtful young man from the Massif Central (one of the least populated regions of France) quickly found himself at the epicentre of Parisian culture. His first one man show took place at the Galerie St Placide: in the cafs of Montparnasse and St Germain de Prs, he spent time with his friends and contemporaries Csar, Yves Klein, Dimitrienko. A poet as well as a painter, he even wrote chansons for Edith Piaf!

One man shows in the US, Japan and England followed. In London, he exhibited with Archer Gallery on Grafton Street, who normally specialised in the British Avant-Garde. Yet George Brunon was the very antithesis of the young cool urban artist. "I learnt to paint from the peasants" he said, referring to his youth in the harsh mountain lands.

For him, art was not a concept, but his relationship with the earth, and its living beings. "Art, is to find a connection with life." This is testified by the radiating omnipresence of nature in his painting: its organic structure, its energy and sheer force. The physicality of art is at the heart of the quest of George Brunon as a painter and philosopher.

Our painting has wonderful provenance: like a small number of others which I will be presenting here, it belonged to the private collection of art critic Guy Dornand, a specialist of Picasso, Utrillo, Lhote, who took a special interest in the Jeune Peinture mouvement to which Brunon - by force of his generation - is connected.

One of the major figures in art criticism post war France, Dornand worked for the Libration broadsheet and wrote innumerable books. Our painting by Georges Brunon came to me from his estate.

The painting is signed and dated 1959 at the lower right. An oil on canvas with beautiful impasto, this strong artwork measures 50 x 73 cm.