YVONNE CANU | Saint-Tropez, le Golfe
19¾" x 23½" / 50 x 60 cms
Oil on Canvas
Yvonne Canu’s joyful and colourful landscapes of the South of France stand out as some of the most captivating pieces in her oeuvre.
The South of France, with its vibrant colours, intense light, and Mediterranean charm, provided Canu with the perfect setting to explore the interplay of colour, light, and atmosphere.
Her pointillist method, involving small, precise dots of pure colour, allowed her to capture the luminosity of this environment in a unique and dynamic way.
In 1893 Paul Signac, greatly shocked by the death of his dear friend, Georges Seurat, voyaged around the Mediterranean on a yacht. It was during this trip that he discovered the little fishing village of Saint Tropez and through his paintings, he introduced this little corner of the Cote d’Azur to many artists in Paris, Yvonne Canu being one of them.
Yvonne Canu was a Neo-Impressionist, as was Signac and heavily influenced by the work of the Pointillists such as Georges Seurat. Her round brushstrokes of juxtaposed pure colours give the viewer the opportunity of fusing the colours with their own eyes. It works remarkably well in the water and the shaded buildings to the left of the picture.
Born in Morocco in 1921, Canu studied at the École des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. After the Second World War she met Foujita who instructed her in drawing and composition and introduced her to the Impressionists. It was not long before she dedicated herself exclusively to Pointillism and adopted the technique for all of her paintings. She belongs to an interesting trend of French twentieth-century artists who looked to and expanded upon the theories of so-called Divisioniste artists of the late 19th century. Like them she often depicted seascapes, harbors and river scenes.
Yvonne Canu exhibited extensively after the Second World War until her death in 2008.
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