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Lot Essay
True to the spirit of a painter-traveller, Le Mayeur travels extensively to search for the beauty and the exotic that inspire him. Most of the travels are well documented from his correspondences with family and friends as well as his paintings. The present lot depicting voluptuous female figures under the foliage of most probably grape vines, is at a place named Ouled Nails in Bousaada (Algeria).
Noted by the authors of the book "It is certain that Le Mayeur set out for North Africa sometime between 1920 and 1921, visiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Not only did he paint there, he also took photographs: the family collection includes two photos processed in Biskra, Algeria. His chosen themes varied from Algerian and Berber women, to beach or street scenes, camel markets, town gates, Bedouin camps, oases and workshops. In his sketchbooks he drew vultures and hyenas, donkeys and Bedouin horsemen." Drs. Jop Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing, Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès: Painter-Traveller, Wijk en Aalburg, 1995, p. 39).
Stylistically, it is period which the works of Le Mayeur appear to be less detailed but more bold with raw and earthy tones and compositionally mostly dominated by volumetric female figures. "In the oil paintings they are applied in a thick layer and with a generous touch. The combination of brush strokes determine the impression of the subject. The painter never loses himself in details, and in this respect the works are significantly different from those he made late in life." (Ibid., p. 40).
Noted by the authors of the book "It is certain that Le Mayeur set out for North Africa sometime between 1920 and 1921, visiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Not only did he paint there, he also took photographs: the family collection includes two photos processed in Biskra, Algeria. His chosen themes varied from Algerian and Berber women, to beach or street scenes, camel markets, town gates, Bedouin camps, oases and workshops. In his sketchbooks he drew vultures and hyenas, donkeys and Bedouin horsemen." Drs. Jop Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing, Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès: Painter-Traveller, Wijk en Aalburg, 1995, p. 39).
Stylistically, it is period which the works of Le Mayeur appear to be less detailed but more bold with raw and earthy tones and compositionally mostly dominated by volumetric female figures. "In the oil paintings they are applied in a thick layer and with a generous touch. The combination of brush strokes determine the impression of the subject. The painter never loses himself in details, and in this respect the works are significantly different from those he made late in life." (Ibid., p. 40).