Le Beau – Church on the Hill

Alcide Le Beau
(1873 Lorient – 1943 Sanary)

CHURCH ON THE HILL

Painted around 1905
Oil on canvas
65 x 54 cm
Signed lower left: A. le Beau

The Breton Alcide Le Beau was a self-taught painter, but this is not apparent from his paintings, which impress with their virtuosity and great skill. He drew his first inspiration at the end of the 19th century from the Pont-Aven painters around Gauguin, especially the Breton Impressionists Henry Moret, Maxime Maufra and Gustave Loiseau.
The paintings created between 1905 and 1908, including the present ‘Church on the Hill’, are major works and highlights of his oeuvre. Stylistically, ‘Church on the Hill’ is strikingly reminiscent of the works of Christian Rohlfs.