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39
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Maurice DUBOIS (Bordeaux 1869-1944 Preignac)
At Dawn, a Plat…
See original version (French)
39
-
Maurice DUBOIS (Bordeaux 1869-1944 Preignac)
At Dawn, a Plat…
See original version (French)
Estimate €4,000 - €6,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Maurice DUBOIS (Bordeaux 1869-1944 Preignac)
At Dawn, a Platoon of French Artillery Crossing a River
Oil on canvas
155 cm x 215 cm
Signed lower right
The son of wine merchants, Maurice Dubois studied painting in Bordeaux and then Limoges. In 1891, gifted with a daring temperament, at the age of 22 he embarked on a commercial adventure in the United States, where his art, halfway between Impressionism and Realism, found an audience.
He then travelled to Italy and Spain, before settling in Belgium, where he rubbed shoulders with avant-garde painters such as James Ensor, Jean Colin and Emile Hoeterickx. Living in Brussels from 1895, he was a key figure in the Franco-Belgian friendship and exhibited in the Brussels Salons and at the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire. On 5 occasions, he also sat on juries for exhibitions abroad.
When the First World War broke out, he immediately closed his studio, returned to France and wrote to the minister Alexandre Millerand on 14 October 1914, requesting an interview to explain the role of the "military painter in the Armies".
It was at the instigation of General Gustave-Léon Niox that a service for painters in the armies was set up, in the hope of preserving documents that were more vivid, more artistic and more complete than photographic views.
The painter travelled the battlefields of the Yser, the Marne, Verdun, etc, for four years, producing some forty patriotic works, which emphasised the heroism of the French Army, the martyrdom of the Earth and the Peoples, and the epic nature of this titanic confrontation.
Our painting is a typical example: at daybreak, a fiery light outlines the silhouettes of a mounted artillery platoon, firing the mythical 75 mm cannon with great effort. The very flat terrain is reminiscent of the Yser Front. The officer ordering the movement, sabre at the ready, evokes the figures of the Grande Armée (another of Maurice Dubois's favourite subjects), while the restless horses lend an almost antique character to this dramatically lit scene. This painting is a reminder of the technical upheaval of the First World War, when the soldier who started it on his neighing horse would end it in the burning steel of the tanks.
155 cm x 215 cm
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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