A very accurate depiction of a hillside in Les Baux-de-Provence, France (see the last detail image for a photograph of the actual hill), this oil on canvas painting by Jules Felix Brien is surrounded by a gold leaf papier-mâché frame adorned with scrolls and lozenge-patterned background. Baux is considered one of the most beautiful villages in France, situated on top of a rocky outcrop beneath a ruined castle. Its name was incorporated into the term “bauxite”, due to the high concentration of aluminum ore located in the sedimentary mountains.

Above the tiny village of Baux is a majestic blue sky with wispy white clouds that provide little relief from the sun. The only source of shade, as illustrated by Brien, comes from the nearby mountains, known as Alpilles, which are mostly unseen on the canvas. A partial light gray crag, dotted with low-lying greenery, can be seen on the left side of the painting, in front of a large hill covered in green, brown, and yellow vegetation. Smoke is emanating from several of the cream houses with red/orange roofs that line the gently sloping hill in front of the rock face.

Brien was born in 1867 in Vierzon, which is part of the Loire region of central France. After studying with the Parisien painter, Fernand Corman (who had previously mentored a young Vincent Van Gogh), Brien became a member of Societe des Artistes Francais, specializing in landscape paintings that depicted imagery of the Loire Valley.  This painting was shown in Paris, in 1926, at the Salon des Artistes Francais (No. 293).

CONDITION: Very good condition with very light rubs to both the canvas and gold leaf frame, which is papier-mâché and not wood. The frame, which does have some faded elements, is not rigged for hanging. Canvas is signed in the lower left: “J. Brien 1926”, with a biography tag on the verso side.