Antoine Chartres, Rhone Landscape (circa 1935)

ANTOINE CHARTRES (Lyon, 1903-1968) Rhône Landscape. Circa 1935. Watercolor. 31.5 x 46.5 cm (sheet) 39 x 59 cm (frame) Signed lower right: Ant Chartres. Framed under glass. Antoine Chartres was a renowned painter from Lyon. Born in Lyon in 1903, he entered the Lyon School of Fine Arts at the age of sixteen and, by the time he graduated, had already won several prizes. He later became a professor of painting at the Paris School of Fine Arts. In the 1930s, he was part of the group of modernist painters from Lyon known as "Les Nouveaux" (The New Ones). Although he explored all genres, he devoted himself particularly to landscape painting, often choosing locations in the countryside around Lyon. The river depicted here is the Rhône, probably seen from a hill in the Pilat mountains. Chartres was an excellent oil painter, but his watercolors were distinguished by a much greater freedom of expression.