Village on the River, 1910

Emile-Louis Minet  

Village on the River is a splendid drawing in pencil, charcoal and watercolor realized by the French painter Emile-Louis Minet in 1919. On the right of the back, there is a small writing in pencil, partially unreadable, with the date “21 (ill.) 1919”. Next to it, there is an unreadable word in parentheses and below “Day”.

Louis Minet was an important artist from Normandy. He lived in Rouen, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. During his life, he achieved great success and won a mention of honor at the Salon of French Artists in 1882. In 1917, he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Rouen and in 1905 curator of the Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen until 1922.

This artwork represents a beautiful French countryside: a meander of a large river, maybe the Seine, and a town on the opposite river bank, with houses and a bell tower. The artist was a realist painter, who paid much attention to air, light, and atmosphere. He drew inspiration from the landscapes and countryside of Normandy en plen air, as it probably occurred in this precise and dynamic drawing, typical of this artist’s production and of coeval painting.

This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under existing legislation, any artwork in Italy created over 70 years ago by an artist who has died requires a licence for export regardless of the work’s market price. The shipping may require additional handling days to require the licence according to the final destination of the artwork.