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Claude Lagoutte (1935–1990) Indian Period, 1984. Mixed media…
See original version (French)
328
-
Claude Lagoutte (1935–1990) Indian Period, 1984. Mixed media…
See original version (French)
Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Claude Lagoutte (1935–1990) Indian Period, 1984. Mixed media on sewn fabric 78 x 78.5 cm Condition report: Framed
‘Unconcerned with the usual dichotomy between figuration and abstraction, Claude Lagoutte envisaged a form of total landscape. Beyond the representation of a specific site, his landscape evokes a journey that must take into account the walker’s physical exertion and the duration of the walk, and which inextricably blends nature with the sensations of the person discovering it... He thus imagines a landscape-memory, a landscape-travelogue. He describes himself as a ‘painter-wanderer’ and asserts that he ‘creates the landscape by traversing it on foot’ or that he ‘unfolds the canvas which he ploughs with his hands’. »
— Robert Coustet[
Born in Rochefort and having attended school in La Rochelle, Claude Lagoutte graduated from the Naval Medical School in Bordeaux. Fascinated by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, he devoted himself to painting alongside his medical work. Responsible for the health of the colonial troops, Claude Lagoutte travelled the world: based in Laos in 1959, he visited Thailand, Hong Kong and India. In the 1960s he was posted to Algiers and travelled to Tunisia and Libya, discovering the Sahara… In the 1970s, he settled in his native region, first in Bordeaux and then in Yvrac. He never stopped travelling (Turkey, the Île d’Oléron every summer, Yemen, Nepal, etc.). In 1977, he became a full-time painter.
His process was as follows: “During his travels, Claude Lagoutte jots down in a notebook — which in this way becomes a work of art in its own right — the colours and topographical features of the landscapes he passes through, snippets of conversations with locals, memories of what he has read, and excerpts from letters exchanged with his loved ones. Back in his studio, he reconstructs the route he has travelled on canvas, cutting strips of fabric or paper, folding them, colouring them, weaving them and sewing them together: two kinds of time thus converge: the physical time of walking and its intellectual counterpart, the time of pictorial translation.
Thus, when the Cognac Museum of Art and History dedicated an exhibition to him in 1977, Claude Lagoutte walked to Cognac from Yvrac: five days during which he explored the landscapes, made sketches and collected soil. The resulting long canvas, presented at the Cognac exhibition, hung from the wall moulding, unrolled on the floor, took the form of a path in five parts, the five stages distinguished by the nuances of the pigments offered to the artist by the places he passed through.
The Yvrac–Cognac journey marked the beginning of a period in which Claude Lagoutte systematically removed his canvases from the stretchers on which they were mounted, allowing them to float freely – perhaps also so that the frame’s boundaries would permit him to make additions, and to expand them, thereby granting the artist the same freedom of movement across the canvas as on roads or paths, across ploughed fields or mountain peaks.
Featured in major public collections (the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the CAPC in Bordeaux, the Élysée Palace, the Manufacture des Gobelins, etc.), Claude Lagoutte’s work remains largely unknown to the general public or is gradually being forgotten, no doubt due to his untimely death...
Lagoutte is often described as an abstract landscape painter; his philosophy is also akin to Land art as practised by Richard Long: he sought to capture a memory of the landscape rather than a mere view. His abstract vision is, ultimately, quite objective and universal. It resonates with current environmental concerns. It is up to us to preserve the memory of his walks and landscapes, which have been, are, and will be ours.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Lot description modified on 07/08/2026 at 5:10 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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