René Thomsen: Fauve Hillside Village, Expressionist Southern Landscape

A bold and beautiful fauve southern landscape with a special story by French artist René Charles Thomsen (1897-1976).

Ren was the son of a sculptor close to the Docteur Gachet, van Gogh's champion and supporter. He studied with Louis Anquetin and Fernand Cormon at the Ecole Nationale Suprieure des Beaux-Arts.

Mobilised in WW1, Ren Thomsen drew and painted solders and scenes from the front. In the late 1910s, he became friends with Jules Pascin and Modigliani, and along with his companion Chaim Soutine, he attended classes at the Academie Colarossi. This is interesting to note, as there is certainly a hint of Soutine in the landscape presented here.

Thomsen obtained the prestigious the Velasquez Prize (similar to the Prize of Rome) and with it, a scholarship to work at the Casa de Velasquez in Madrid in 1931-32. The oil on canvas presented here is dated 1932, and was hence created during his time in Spain!

Measuring 65 x 54 cm, the painting is signed and dated at the lower right. The overall framed size is 79 x 67 cm.

In his lifetime, Ren Thomsen had one man shows at important Parisian galleries such as the Galerie Marcel Bernheim (1929) and the Galerie Durand-Ruel. Works by the artists are now in the Collections of the Pompidou Centre, in the Louvre, the petit Palais, Versailles Castle, the Museum of Bagnols sur Cze, Le Havre, Rouen, Albi and Toulon.