LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Measurements:

20.28 in. (51.50 cm.) (height) by 30.31 in. (77.00 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed lower left: Narbonne

Exhibited:

Carnegie International Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1933, catalogue no. 193. Narbonne was a noted figurative French painter and professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. His preference for strong volumes and highly sculptural forms characterize his landscapes and figures alike. In this scene of Menton, on the French Riviera, the sunny port, and the hilly medieval old town crowned by the Basilique Saint-Michel, with its 18th-century bell tower, are of secondary interest to the large bathing beauties basking on the sand in the foreground. One of Narbonne's most famous pupils was the painter Bernard Buffet.

Provenance:

Loudmer Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris, June 1996, lot 20; William Solloway, Toronto and New York, acquired from the above; Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2017.