Henri PONTOY (Reims 1888 - Six-Fours-les-Plages... Lot n° 215

On the coast Gouache on paper 46 x 37.5 cm Signed, dedicated and dated lower left Pontoy à Do Henain cordial souvenir 1932 Henri Pontoy was an Orientalist painter trained at the Barbizon School. Open-air painting, as conceived by the landscape painters of this School, conditioned his approach. He favors plein-air painting as part of a realistic approach. His work is characterized by a bold color palette, dynamic composition and an exploration of form and light. Pontoy drew his inspiration from nature, urban landscapes and scenes of everyday life. His paintings often captured fleeting moments and particular atmospheres, revealing his sensitivity to nuances of light and shadow. Art critic Pascal Forthuny called him "a true landscape psychologist", revealing his talent for rendering panoramas. The artist was also influenced by his travels across Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain, where he was captivated by architecture, Mediterranean landscapes and local cultures. In 1926, with a travel grant from the Société Coloniale des Artistes Français, he traveled to North Africa, notably Tunisia (where he became a member of the Salon Tunisien), then to Morocco, where he was captivated. He lived there until 1965, first in Ouarzazate, where he met the painter Jacques Majorelle. For 14 years, he taught arts and literature at the Lycée Moulay Idriss in Fez, while exhibiting regularly at the Galerie Derche in Casablanca. He is one of the last French representatives of Orientalism, which reached its apogee between the wars.