Lavandière à Bordighera

Francois-Louis-David Bocion began his artistic training in Paris in 1845, but following a bout of typhoid fever he returned to his native Lausanne. There he took up the post of drawing professor at the Ecole Industrielle, a post he held for 41 years. Before his first trip to Italy in 1852, Bocion's early efforts consisted of illustrations and caricatures for local satirical journals and history paintings. However in Italy the artist discovered his true passion for landscape painting and in particular became interested in the works of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Bocion went on to develop a unique style of painting in which light and colour play a greater role than geographical accuracy. Thus he broke away from traditional Swiss landscape painting, striving to convey the ever-changing atmospheric effects of Lake Geneva and other locations he painted. The present work is typical of Bocion's approach to painting in its free use of colour and sketch-like finish.