The cliff of Yport or "The sinister".
Oil on canvas, signed lower left.
38 x 46 cm.
Small restoration at the bottom left.
A major French painter of the late 19th century, André Devambez became famous for his lively and whimsical depictions of Parisian life. With The Cliffs of Yport, "Le sinistre", he delivers an astonishing genre scene - perhaps a shipwreck -, a pretext for the expression of his talent, as powerful as it is little known, as a landscape painter.
In the 1920s - the decade in which the painting was probably executed, according to the inscription of the canvas supplier "Paul Foinet Fils" and the other representations of Yport - André Devambez was at the height of his fame. His paintings, drawings and illustrations depicting the reality of Paris or the rise of modern technology are extremely popular.
However, the artist never ceases to innovate and surprise; our painting attests to this. The cliff unfolds, curved, to cut the horizon with its severe limestone facade. Below, as if imprisoned, a crowd crowds the narrow beach, invaded by the raging sea. André Devambez uses all his skill in point of view to show the powerlessness of men and women in the face of the elements, delivering a painting with romantic landscape overtones, far from, for example, the sunny representation of the beach at Yport in the Musée d'Orsay.
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