Alphonse OSBERT (1857-1939 )Young woman at the... Lot 10

Alphonse OSBERT (1857-1939 )Young woman at the edge of a lakePastel . Signed lower left. 30 x 22 cmThis pastel is technically very advanced, accomplished and designed as a real painting . The result is a majestic work in terms of its composition and choice of colours, hence its eminently decorative character despite its format (unusual in the painter's output). Osbert has completely mastered the interplay and relationship of complementary colours, principles inspired by Chevreul's laws. The layering of colours in the right-hand section, in several successive planes, corresponds to the different elements of nature which are superimposed, the water, the forest and the sky, with an excess of yellow symbolising the liveliness of a sun which rises or sets. The colours are treated in flat tones and their decorative arrangement recalls the compositions of Maurice Denis and the Nabis, whose Talisman, inspired by the lessons of Gauguin, is the origin. Here Osbert applies the principle of the surface reduced to a single vertical plane, without any effect of perspective or depth, with colours that are juxtaposed to the point of composing a kind of mosaic. The colours are surprisingly bold and contrasting, especially the blue and yellow, which create a certain harmony and are in perfect harmony with the mauve and pink. These colours are vivid, exaggerated, distorted compared to those Osbert discovers when observing nature. The female figure, who is the subject of the painting, appears on the left-hand side. Here the colours are softer, more nuanced, treated in a gradation of mauve and pink, the technique of which borrows from Impressionist practice. The young woman is getting ready to enter the water and is undressing. The drapery deliberately leaves the back bare and gives this figure a sensuality and grace, which is in keeping with the theme of the bath, and contrasts in its treatment with the right-hand side of the painting, which appears almost abstract and geometric. The gesture of the arm around the hair is common in Osbert's compositions, more particularly borrowed from the decoration of Vichy. This is an original and atypical work which can be compared with the Bath dating from 1904. Véronique Dumas, March 2021 (Véronique Dumas, Le Peintre symboliste Alphonse Osbert, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 2005.) We thank Madame Véronique Dumas for the information contained in this notice.