Lot 656 Rα

Rau Collection for UNICEF


The work shows the banks of the Saône enveloped in fog. This river's source is in the Vosges mountains near Vioménil, and it runs for 450 km before feeding into the Rhône at Lyon. The Saône is depicted as relatively wide, and it may thus be assumed that Pourtau painted it near its end. The artist was enrolled at the music conservatoire in Lyon and received first prize as clarinettist. Léon Pourtau was not only a passionate painter, but also - as in the case of his close friend Georges Seurat - a talented musician. From Seurat, whom he met and came to appreciate in Paris, he soon adopted the principles of pointillism. At the age of only 25, Pourtau died during a ship accident in the Atlantic Ocean. He had spent the last two years of his life in Philadelphia, where he had accepted a two-year position as a concert musician in the hopes of earning enough money to be able to subsequently devote himself exclusively to painting. Although Pourtau had been a promising talent, this dream was never fulfilled: the tragic accident occurred during his return voyage from the USA.

The fog above the Saône immerses the riverscape in a mild, milky light. Initially the depicted objects largely corresponded to their local colour; however, they were covered over with a multitude of closely-spaced dots of paint in light violet, pink, orange, light blue, yellow and green. From a distance, these dots - which have been placed according to a playfully realised system - are perceived not in isolation, but bundled together. This effect of optical blending intensifies the emotional quality of the colours.