École française (XX) - Sous le grand arbre

Pictura Subastas presents this magnificent artwork belonging to the French school, depicting the access via a bridge to a picturesque village of light-colored houses with reddish roofs, dominated by a tall tower and surrounded by trees and blue-tinged mountains. The painting stands out for its excellent technique and the high pictorial quality it conveys. • Dimensions with frame: 51x60x5 cm. • Dimensions without frame: 38x46 cm. • Oil on canvas hand-signed by the artist at the bottom left. • The piece is in good condition. • The work is sold with a beautiful frame (included in the auction as a gift). The work comes from an exclusive private collection in Girona. Important note: the included photographs are an integral part of the lot description. The painting will be professionally packaged by an IVEX expert (https://www.instagram.com/ivex.online/), using high-quality materials to guarantee its protection. The shipping price covers both the cost of professional packaging and the transport itself. The shipment will be carried out by Correos, GLS or NACEX with tracking. International shipping is available. This painting presents a bright urban panorama in which a wide road leads the viewer toward a picturesque village of light-colored houses, reddish roofs, and a tall tower that dominates the skyline. The scene unfolds beside a bridge flanked on the left by a reddish structure and on the right by a long railing, while several vehicles and small figures traverse the access to the historic core. The abundant vegetation, the blue-tinged mountains in the background, and the vibrant color distribution create a cheerful, dynamic, and deeply evocative atmosphere. The road occupies almost the entire lower area and functions as the main depth axis. It begins very broad in front of the viewer and gradually narrows as it approaches the village. Its slightly curved path guides the gaze toward a dark opening at the end of the bridge, arousing curiosity about what might be beyond. The surface of the road is dominated by yellows, ochres, creams, browns and delicate pinkish tones. Several sinuous lines cross the ground and suggest marks from traffic, colored shadows or reflections of light. These curves animate the foreground and prevent the road from feeling like a uniform extension. In the central area, a brown car is visible from behind. Its small size helps establish the landscape’s scale and reinforces perspective. The vehicle seems to move slowly toward the village entrance, becoming a everyday presence that introduces life and movement. Further ahead another vehicle in a vivid reddish color stands out. Its silhouette contrasts with the light tones of the houses and creates an attractive chromatic accent. The distance between the two cars allows imagining a quiet traffic, typical of a small town away from the bustle of large cities. Along the road are also hinted some human figures represented by small light and pinkish shapes. Their presence is discreet but enough to suggest pedestrians crossing the bridge or heading to the town streets. These figures enrich the narrative character without disturbing the scene’s serenity. On the left rises a structure in intense red that appears to be part of the bridge or its access. Two solid vertical pillars support inclined elements and create a marked geometric rhythm. The combination of reds, burgundies, whites and browns contrasts with the greens of the surrounding vegetation. The reddish structure forms a strong lateral frame. Its vertical and diagonal lines balance the large tree on the far right, establishing a correspondence between architecture and nature. The red reappears in the roofs, vehicles and small details of the facades, providing unity to the whole. Below the structure extend several curved walls that define the road. Their surfaces combine browns, grays, creams and white reflections, and seem to adapt to the terrain’s outline. These wavy lines guide the eye toward the center and provide a smooth transition between the foreground and the urban access. Behind the pillars appears a lush mass of greens, turquoises, blues and yellows. The trees rise above the architecture and form a fresh, luminous background. Some branches stretch toward the sky, while others descend and seem to envelop the bridge. Left-side vegetation creates a pleasant sense of continuity with the surrounding natural environment. The light greens suggest sunlit areas, while the darker blues and greens mark the shaded regions. This alternation adds volume and movement to the foliage. On the right, a long railing accompanies the entire bridge. Its horizontal lines are interrupted by numerous vertical supports that gradually decrease in size toward the background. This rhythmic repetition reinforces the perspective and leads the eye directly to the first houses. The railing colors combine whites, browns, grays and small reddish accents. The clarity of the upper part contrasts with the dark shadows of its base and makes its structure easy to understand. Its outline creates an orderly boundary between the road and the village on the other side. Next to the railing lies a row of small trees with rounded canopies. Their green trunks and leaves in yellows, blues and turquoises form a regular succession. These trees soften the presence of the architecture and bring freshness to the promenade. At the far right dominates a large tree with a sturdy trunk. Its close presence adds depth and serves as a strong natural frame. The trunk shows browns, grays, greens and reddish reflections that reveal the bark’s irregularities. The tree’s crown occupies much of the upper right area. Its leaves are formed by dark greens, intense blues, yellows, whites, reds and small turquoise reflections. This extraordinary color variety turns the foliage into a vibrant surface, as if light passed through the branches and produced countless glints. The branches descend partially over the houses and the railing, creating an enveloping feel. The density of the crown contrasts with the clarity of the sky, while its curved forms balance the straight geometry of the tower, pillars and façades. At the tree’s base there is a ground area covered by greens, blues, whites and yellows. These tones may suggest vegetation, roots, stones or colored shadows. Its cool range provides a very attractive counterpoint to the warm tones of the road. The village extends across the central band and is formed by numerous stacked buildings. The houses feature white, cream, gray, light blues, pinks and ochres façades. The reddish and orange roofs visually connect one building to another and convey the place’s traditional character. The buildings adjust to different ground levels, creating an irregular and picturesque urban structure. Some houses seem to sit next to the bridge, while others rise toward the background. This superposition of volumes provides depth and makes the town appear wide and densely built. In the left area stands a taller building with a brown and ochre façade. Its small windows and dark balconies add rhythm and suggest inhabited interiors. The building rises slightly above nearby houses and contributes to enriching the urban profile. The windows and doors are represented by small black, blue, reddish and gray shapes. Although depicted in a schematic way, they allow imagining balconies, shutters, accesses and shadowed corners. These details give life to the façades and convey the impression of an active community. The roofs form an attractive succession of diagonals. Their colors vary from reds, browns, oranges, pinks and illuminated whites. The repetition of the coverings creates continuity and guides the eye from the left-side buildings to the central tower. The tall tower is the principal architectural focal point of the composition. Its slender vertical body rises above the roofs and stands out clearly against the blue-tinged mountains. A pointed roof crowns the structure and further emphasizes its height. The tower’s walls mix grays, subdued greens, whites and blue-tinged shadows. In its lower or central part there appears a light area that may correspond to an opening or a reflection. This brightness stands out against the dark body and adds variety to the structure. The tower can be interpreted as a bell tower, a defensive construction, or a historic building tied to the locality’s identity. Its presence acts as a visible landmark from the bridge and nearby paths. The houses seem to cluster around it, recognizing it as the symbolic center of the village. To the right of the tower extends a row of narrow, tall façades. The whites, pinks, blues and yellows alternate with dark doors and windows. These buildings seem to accompany the bridge’s path and bring the village visually closer to the viewer. The lower zones of the buildings show green, brown and grayish shadows that may suggest arcades, walls, entrances or lower-level spaces. This contrast with the illuminated façades adds volume and prevents a flat rendering of the hamlet. The urban core is backed by a chain of mountains in deep blues, violets and grays. The relief stretches horizontally behind the tower and the roofs, creating a solid background line. The mountains surround the town and reinforce its integration into the landscape. The nearer elevations show intense blue tones, while the farther ones soften with violets and grays. This gradient helps perceive distance and creates a natural transition toward the sky. The relief brings calm and stability in contrast to the road’s movement and the vehicles. The sky occupies a wide area in the upper left and central parts. Its light blue, white, gray and cream tones suggest a slightly hazy atmosphere. The light seems to diffuse evenly, enveloping the houses, the bridge and the vegetation without producing overly harsh contrasts. Some clouds or pale bands cross the sky horizontally. These soft shapes balance the density of the tree crown and allow the tower to stand out clearly. The atmosphere conveys the sense of a tranquil day, possibly a cool morning or a bright afternoon. The composition sensitively combines warm and cool colors. The ochres and pinks of the road, the reds of the bridge and roofs, and the yellows of the vegetation add warmth; the blues of the mountains, the greens of the trees, and the grays of the sky introduce freshness and depth. The color repetition across different zones creates a strong visual unity. The red connects the pillars with the cars and the roofs; the blue links the façades, the sky and the mountains; and green appears both in nearby vegetation and in the trees aligned along the bridge. Despite the abundance of elements, the scene remains clearly balanced. The left-side reddish structure finds its counterpoint in the large tree on the right, while the tower rises in the center as a vertical axis. The road and the railing organize depth and guide the gaze without confusion. The work conveys an attractive coexistence of history and modernity. The tower, the roofs and the façades evoke the town’s past, while the cars and pedestrians show the continuity of present life. The place preserves its historic identity without appearing halted or abandoned. The road can be interpreted symbolically as an invitation to enter and discover the town. The viewer seems to be behind the vehicles, ready to cross the bridge and enter its streets. The dark opening in the background arouses curiosity and suggests that the journey continues beyond what is visible. Human presence remains subordinate to the landscape, yet essential to give it life. The vehicles advance, the small figures traverse the access, and the houses seem inhabited. All suggests quiet everyday activity close at hand. The great multicolored crown of the tree introduces an almost festive element. Its numerous glints resemble illuminated leaves, flowers or changing reflections. This exuberance contrasts with the sobriety of the tower and adds joy to the urban whole. Overall, this precious painting offers a luminous, colorful and deeply evocative view of the access to an ancient town through a bridge traversed by vehicles and small figures. The left reddish structure, the long railing, the vibrant-crowned large-tree, the light façades, the warm roofs, and the tower rising before the blue-tinted mountains build a scene rich in depth and vitality. The harmonious union of architecture, nature and history makes the landscape an invitation to cross the bridge and discover the everyday charm of a locality that remains alive among roads, colors and memories.

Estimation:€200

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