Code: 5030
Dimensions:
A beautiful signed and dated 1931 French naïf oil on canvas depicting Beffroi de Douai, by Jean Eve.
Jean Eve was one of the "first wave" of 20th century French naïf painters and this depiction of the famous French landmark is a superb example of his work.
He is featured in Anatole Jakovsky's ''Peintres Naïfs'' which is considered the bible of 20th century French naïf painters.
Presented in a painted wood frame and signed/dated lower right. An important and early example of French naïf art.
Artist: Jean Eve (French, 1900-1968)
Title: Beffroi de Douai
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 27.5 x 23.5 inches (70cm x 60cm) including the frame
Jean Eve comes from a family of miners; however, he wanted to escape from this landscape of slag-heaps and left home. He became a surveyor, draughtsman, customs-house officer - but most important of all, he was an artist.
He was lucky enough to participate as a very young man in the first exhibition to promote the primitives and since then he lived for his art. He worked regularly, especially in Normandy, near Giverny (Monet country).
His technique developed steadily, except for the short diversion of his 'Venice' period, to the extent that one sometimes wonders whether he can still be called 'naive'.
But he certainly is a naive painter, in fact a very, very fine one - for him, the craft of painting is used, fundamentally, to express his sensitivity to, and love for nature.
Source: Anatole Jakovsky - ''Peintres Naïfs''
