Lebourg
The Banks of the Gèneve Lake at St. Gingolph
ALBERT LEBOURG
Montford sur Risle 1849 – 1928 Rouen
Les bords du lac de Gèneve, à Saint-Gingolph, 1900
The Banks of the Gèneve Lake at Saint-Gingolph
Oil on canvas
54 x 81.3 cm.; 21 3/8 x 32 inches
Signed and inscribed lower left
Notes:
- Lebourg’s roots were in Normandy and particularly Rouen where his painting had been appreciated since the early 1870s. His recognition in the Parisian world came with his participation in 1879 in what now is designated as the fourth Impressionist Exhibition. This exhibition, which took place at 28 avenue de l’Opéra in Paris, included Caillebotte, Cassatt, Degas, Monet, Pissarro as well as Lebourg who showed twenty paintings and ten drawings. Subsequently, Lebourg took part in the fifth Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1880. The artists in this later exhibition included Caillebotte, Cassatt, Degas, Guillaumin, Lebourg, Morisot, and Pissarro. In the fifth Impressionist exhibition, Lebourg presented ten paintings and sixteen drawings and watercolors.
- Recognition of the importance of the Impressionists by French museums gained considerable momentum through the gift (which included 13 paintings by Lebourg) of the collector François Depeaux to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen in 1909. At the time of this gift, Depeaux stated (quoted in: François Lespinasse, Albert Lebourg, Rouen, 1983: p. 206):
…this collection seems to me to give a good idea of what has been called Impressionism, but what could be more correctly called the School of Open-Air Painting (école en plein air). [Our purpose is] to open widely the doors of this museum to an art which, although very criticized at its beginnings and even up to just a few years ago, finally through the truth and ardent conviction of its apostles, [that is to say] Cl. Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, Guillaumin, Lebourg and all the following young [artists], now see their works classified among mankind’s most beautiful [artistic] achievements…
3. To be included in the forthcoming Lebourg: Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Rodolphe Walter, Wildenstein Institute.
Ferryboat from La Bouille, morning
ALBERT LEBOURG
Montford sur Risle 1849 – 1928 Rouen
Le Bac de la Bouille, le matin, 1912
Ferryboat from La Bouille, morning
Oil on canvas
68 x 100.3 cm.; 26 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches
Signed and dated, lower left: a. Lebourg 1912
Provenance:
Galerie Georges Petit, Paris
Exhibited:
Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Albert Lebourg, November 1923.
Notes:
- Lebourg’s roots were in Normandy and particularly Rouen where his painting had been appreciated since the early 1870s. His recognition in the Parisian world came with his participation in 1879 in what now is designated as the fourth Impressionist Exhibition. This exhibition, which took place at 28 avenue de l’Opéra in Paris, included Caillebotte, Cassatt, Degas, Monet, Pissarro as well as Lebourg who showed twenty paintings and ten drawings. Subsequently, Lebourg took part in the fifth Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1880. The artists in this later exhibition included Caillebotte, Cassatt, Degas, Guillaumin, Lebourg, Morisot, and Pissarro. In the fifth Impressionist exhibition, Lebourg presented ten paintings and sixteen drawings and watercolors.
- Recognition of the importance of the Impressionists by French museums gained considerable momentum through the gift (which included 13 paintings by Lebourg) of the collector François Depeaux to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen in 1909. At the time of this gift, Depeaux stated (quoted in: François Lespinasse, Albert Lebourg, Rouen, 1983: p. 206):…this collection seems to me to give a good idea of what has been called Impressionism, but what could be more correctly called the School of Open-Air Painting (école en plein air). [Our purpose is]to open widely the doors of this museum to an art which, although very criticized at its beginnings and even up to just a few years ago, finally through the truth and ardent conviction of its apostles, [that is to say] Cl. Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, Guillaumin, Lebourg and all the following young [artists], now see their works classified among mankind’s most beautiful [artistic] achievements…
- Georges Petit (1856 – 1920), former owner of this work, was a French art dealer, a key figure in the Paris art world and an important promoter and cultivator of Impressionist artists. Eventually the principle rival of Durand-Ruel, Petit began buying Impressionist works as early as 1878. By 1881, Petit offered a popular alternative exhibition space different from the official Salons. His private viewings at the gallery were made into grand social occasions. He devised the series of Expositions internationales de Peinture, the first of which was held in 1882. These events attracted the likes of Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Albert Lebourg.
- To be included in the forthcoming Lebourg: Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Rodolphe Walter, Wildenstein Institute.