A charming Oil on Canvas Painting of a Mill in the Countryside by French painter Maurice Lemaitre.
Maurice Lemaitre was born in 1929 in Gouy-sous-Bellonne in the Pas-de-Calais department of France.
He was a self-taught painter who trained by interacting with regional painters, receiving their advice and working tirelessly to improve his technique.
A landscape painter, he expressed himself best in a post-impressionist style.
He set up his easel in places that the illustrious Masters of Impressionism had immortalized before him.
He exhibited in numerous Salons, including the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon des Artistes Indépendants, as well as in Barbizon.
He received the “Grand Prix des Paysagistes Français” (Grand Prize for French Landscape Painters).
In the 1960s, several Parisian galleries, recognizing his talent, organizing solo exhibitions.
Other exhibitions followed, notably in the USA, in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit, but also in Spain, Moscow, Geneva, and Tokyo…
Several of his works are included in state collections as well as in private French and foreign collections.
He died in 2018.
A landscape painter, Lemaitre loved bucolic settings, conducive to daydreaming.
What could be more restful than a riverbank, its gentle melody enveloping us in its coolness?
It is in the choice of framing that the artist brings his work to life. The easel is set up, and talent does the rest.
Here, a simple clearing in the trees reveals a small section of the mill with its ochre reflections, contrasting with the shades of green, combined with a few touches of mauve.
A composition where the focal point is placed in the center, allowing the eye to escape towards a patch of blue sky in the upper part.
The predominant use of cool tones helps us to immediately focus on the warm tones of the mill.
Much poetry is to be found in this very well-executed rural landscape.
Original oil on canvas, signed in the lower left, in a gilded and patinated wooden frame.
Unframed: 11 x 14 inches
Framed: 16 x 20 inches