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Oil on cardboard (isorel) signed Lucien Seevagen* representing a seaside landscape with seaweed farmers with their cart working a little away from the village of Meneham** in Kerlouan (Finistère - Brittany) visible in the background among the dunes, from the early 20th century.
This painting is in good condition and of exceptional quality. Signed and annotated in the lower left corner.
Note: small stain/black mark on the canvas, slight wear from age, see photos.
** In Brittany, located in Finistère north of Brest, Meneham is an old village of peasant-fishermen-seaweed harvesters. Nestled between the rocks of the Côte des Légendes, in the heart of the pagan country ("pagan" in Breton) on an exceptional natural site 100m from the GR 34, this village of thatched cottages, now restored, offers an ideal setting for a walk.
Lucien Seevagen was a French painter who notably painted numerous works depicting the Bréhat archipelago, as well as the Morvan region, Provence, and Corsica. He trained at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then in the studio of Eugène Charvot. From 1907 onward, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, then at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne. Lucien Seevagen arrived on the island of Bréhat to convalesce after the First World War, where he had been gassed. In 1920, while maintaining a studio in Montparnasse at 242 Boulevard Raspail, the painter and his wife settled permanently in Brittany. His studio, located above Kerpont, offered him one of the most beautiful views of the island of Bréhat. In 1921, Seevagen gained recognition across the Atlantic. He participated in the first group exhibition of French painters in Canada in 1924, under the patronage of the Quebec government. In 1923, Seevagen exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale. Between 1936 and 1940, the French state acquired seven of his works. In 1938, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris acquired, among other works, "Sémaphore à Bréhat," an oil on canvas. In the aftermath of the war, the Helleu-Pelletan gallery in Paris exhibited the "Masters of Brittany," including Lucien Seevagen, Maurice Denis, Lucien Simon, Paul Sérusier, and Emmanuel Le Ray. Suffering from illness since 1958, the painter died on June 25, 1959, in Bréhat. Many of Lucien Seevagen's works are in public collections (museums in Rennes, Saint-Brieuc, Quimper, Narbonne, but also Boston and the National Gallery of Canada).
The artist is highly rated on Artprice.
