LeBeau – Côte Sauvage

Alcide Le Beau
(1873–1943)

CÔTE SAUVAGE

Oil on canvas
46.5 x 55 cm
Signed lower right: A. le Beau

Alcide le Beau was a teacher and self-taught painter, which is surprising given the quality of his paintings. He was a natural talent. He made up for his lack of training with talent and passion, earning himself a place among the best artists of his time.

At the beginning of his career, he joined the Pont-Aven painters, but instead of Gauguin and Bernard’s cloisonism, he chose the Breton Impressionism perfected by Henry Moret, Maxime Maufra and Gustave Loiseau, which is characterised by strong colours and complementary contrasts. This impressionist-style painting depicts the Côte Sauvage, the wild coast, a picturesque coastal formation full of rocky cliffs and hidden beaches. It is located in the Loire-Atlantique department on the Atlantic Ocean off the Guérande peninsula and stretches to the bay of La Baule. Le Beau captured the rugged landscape in shades of pink, blue and green, which he applied with energetic, vibrant brushstrokes. The use of ‘Rose Moret’, the motif and the painting style are reminiscent of Henry Moret, whose works Le Beau’s paintings can rival. His painting shows the coast in sunshine and calm seas, but focuses on the rocks rugged by the crashing waves. Like Moret, he focused on the contrast between radiant beauty and the wild relentlessness of nature, so typical of Brittany, and joined the ranks of the great painters of Breton Impressionism.