the rocky coast - Karl Edvard Diriks (1855-1930) in Brittany

This painting most likely representing the Pointe du Percho near Pont Aven is an ode to color.
Probably made between 1912 and 1921, nine years that he spent in France and mainly in Brittany, this painting is part of the post-impressionist movement, one of the representatives closest to Diriks is Henri Moret. An eminent member of the Pont Aven school, Moret was able to meet Diriks without this being attested.
Fascinated by the sea, the painter used deep colors, energetic brushstrokes to capture the power of the sea. From a simple composition, the captivating colors with acid tones translate the instability of light.
Karl Edvard Diriks, born in Oslo (Norway) is the son of Bénédicte Henriette Munch, which makes him the cousin of Edvard Munch author of the famous painting "the cry".
He began by studying architecture in Karlsruhe from 1874 to 1875, then in Berlin, but painting very quickly took over. In Berlin he met Frits Thaulow and Max Klinger which undoubtedly influenced him.
In 1879 he moved to a suburb of Copenhagen, Christiania, and devoted himself mainly to landscape painting. With his friend Fritz Thaulow he traveled through Norway, going as far as Finland and even Murmansk.
It seems that his first trip to Paris in 1882-1883 precedes that of his cousin E. Munch in 1885. There he got acquainted with Impressionism and even participated in the Salon of 1883. Monet, Sisley will greatly influence him when ' he returned to Oslo in 1883. His way of painting will change in the 1890s: much larger brushstrokes and above all an omnipresent color.
Norway was no longer enough for him, in 1894 he left for Bergen and from there began a journey that took him to Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria before settling in Paris in 1899 at the request of the publicist Julien Leclercq. He frequents everything that the French art scene counts, Octave Mirbeau, Paul Fort, Emile Verhaeren, but also Picasso and Modigliani.
In 1901, he exhibited in Antwerp, an exhibition which had a great impact and earned him an article by the famous journalist and art critic Marius-Ary Leblond entitled "the painter's wind".
He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Indépendants, at the Salon d'Automne where some of his paintings were purchased by the French government in 1905, 1908 and 1909.
In 1909, he exhibited in Paris with a series of 23 landscape paintings which all had depth and space but in which the emphasis was on atmospheric conditions, especially in his landscapes of Brittany. The great poet Gunnar Reiss-Andersen, who wrote the preface to a catalog in 1930, describes perfectly what formed the basis of Diriks' success in France: "There is something continuous in his images, strange events in the sky, violent scenes between seas and winds, there are lovely dialogues between air and land, a great maelstrom of clouds in the glow of the black red ocean, long mighty trains of poplars across the plain, where the shadows and the countryside are populated with light clothes ".
During the First World War Edvard Diriks remained in France, but left for the provinces, so in 1917 he painted in Cancale, then in Normandy, in 1918 he was in Collioure. He returned to Norway in 1921 for the first time in nine years.
He paints Norwegian landscapes and especially the sea.
Being part of different companies, he exhibits regularly in trade fairs and exhibitions.
painting painted between 1912 and 1921
gilded frame