The Old Church of the Assumption of Gassin - Gustave Vidal (1895-1966)

The old church of the Assumption of Gassin in the golf of Saint Tropez, oil on canvas signed lower left and titled: Old church in Gassin and numbered 116 on the back. Medium format horizontal rectangular shape in its wooden, stuccoed and gilded style frame; this work reveals to us the exaggerated technique of the knife, while in strong contrast shaping the effects of light and relief, combined with the science of colors that the Avignon master master distills with virtuosity. It sets the scene, the moment, the season and the place with its palette of powerful colors. The scene is composed in the foreground of the green tending towards the brown tobacco of the Virginia creeper clinging to the white stones of the house adjacent to the old church; both are still bathed in sunlight, which contrasts with the cool shade of the arbor laden with fragrant foliage. On the clapboard road shaded with beiges and graying whites, the vegetation adorns itself with its autumnal dress. Two women walk, a shawl warming their shoulders; white for the youngest, red on a black dress for her eldest; the man walking behind them has already put on a black velvet hat. The panorama is composed of various shades of blue, light cluttered with white for the cloudy sky and the very gradual one of the water, darkening depending on the depth of the sea. In the background, the beige snake of the beaches delimiting the coastline of the hilly hinterland of the Gulf. Everything seems to show us the end of the summer season, a period that is still mild but with slightly cool late afternoons. Born in 1895 in Avignon, Gustave VIDAL is a landscape and marine painter. Laureate of fine arts in Avignon where he obtained numerous awards. He participates in Paris, at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he is a member. He paints landscapes of Provence, Camargue and Corsica. As this oil attests, today he is undoubtedly one of the best great Provençal landscapers of the early 20th century. An excellent colorist, he shapes the dough with a knife like no one before; like a mason he constructs his paintings in three dimensions. Compositions always with admirable accuracy and balance. VIDAL's painting is alive and above all so terribly Provençal. Gustave Vidal exhibited in Marseille, Paris, Berlin, Brusel and many others. Oil in superb condition, perfectly restored, cleaning and varnishing carried out according to the rules of the art.
Dimensions 46 cm wide by 55 cm high for the chassis and 67.5 cm wide and 59.5 cm high for the frame.
The gallery has several other works by Gustave Vidal.