Vaclav RADIMSKY (Kolín 1946 - Pašinka 1946) Lot n° 3

Landscape near Giverny Circa 1890 Oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm Provenance: Private collection, France Vaclav Radimsky was born in 1867 in Kolín, in central Bohemia, a village located in the Elbe Valley. His father, a lawyer, was mayor of the town and owned a mill there. The nature, the trees, the light, the water and the surroundings of the Elbe, leave an indelible imprint on the mind of the future landscape painter. The artist left his native Bohemia at the end of his high school studies to learn about art in Europe. He first studied at the Vienna Art Academy with one of the masters of landscape painting, Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels, and then for a short time he attended the Munich Art Academy before moving to Paris in 1890. The painter Zdenka Braunerová welcomed him to the French capital, gave him her support and introduced him to her friends. In 1891 Radimsky went to Barbizon where he met the impressionist painters and became friends with Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne; these meetings were decisive for the artist in the way he conceived his art. The painter left around 1892 for Giverny in order to settle there. He first stayed in Vernon with the grandmother of the current owner of the two works presented here. The two paintings were painted during the artist's stay with his host. The set resulting from the artist's gift in exchange for hospitality was initially composed of two additional paintings, dispersed in a sale in 2020: Epte, oil on canvas, 54 x 81 cm, lot n° 49, Expertisez, sale on 26.02.2020 and Buisson fleuri, oil on canvas 55 x 76 cm signed lower left, lot n° 35, Expertisez, sale on 14.10.2020. The landscape " L'île Corday à Vernon " reveals the attachment of the landscape painter to the expression of atmospheric effects. Composed of volumes treated in a synthetic way, the construction of this landscape translates an impression of immediacy. To create the bank on the right, the painter works with a knife with vivacity. The water of the river is translated by a surface revealing the pictorial material. The apparent reserves revealing the prepared canvas, translate the reflections of light. Vaclav Radimsky then left his host's house to settle in a mill called "La bergamote" near Giverny in the village of Le Goulet, not far from his friend Claude Monet. The surroundings of Giverny will animate the artist's painting for almost 20 years. Elise Vignault