Lot n° 6
Estimation :
80 - 120
EUR
Eugène LE POITTEVIN (1806-1870) - Lot 6
Eugène LE POITTEVIN (1806-1870)
Sailor observing a woman's breast.
Drawing signed with the monogram lower right.
23.5 x 18.4 cm
A marine painter and "inventor of Étretat" in the words of Alexandre Dumas, Le Poittevin prefigured Impressionism. After an established official career and numerous paintings exhibited at the Salon, he devoted a significant part of his output to Normandy. This was particularly true of Étretat, then a small fishing village, which he helped to introduce to his friends among the Parisian artistic elite. Although Baudelaire mocked this painter for "painting too well", his daring choice of framing, reminiscent of Japanese prints, his disregard for romanticism and the primary importance given to activities and the human figure, made him a modernist.
This drawing illustrates the eroticism in Le Poittevin's work, another facet of his output that he published under the titles "Diableries Érotiques" or "Charges et Décharges Érotiques" from the mid-1830s. In this drawing, the erotic anecdote, more suggestive than in the aforementioned publications, is unusually set against a lively beach scene.
In 1872, shortly after his death, his friend the painter Eugène Bellangé wrote of his drawings: "Most of these sketches, full of jets, elegance and charm, yield nothing to the painted studies. Many are masterfully handled, and with the rarest of ease."
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