John Peter Russell Rare Antique Original Australian Post Impressionist of Belle-Île Brittany France Landscape Oil Painting
John Peter Russell, (16 June 1858 – 22 April 1930), was born in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, the eldest of four children of John Russell, a Scottish engineer, and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Nicholl, from London. John Russell was a nephew of Sir Peter Nicol Russell. After his father's death J. P. Russell enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, on 5 January 1881, and studied under Alphonse Legros for three years. Russell then went to Paris to study painting under Fernand Cormon. (His fellow students there included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard.) Russell was a man of means and having married a beautiful Italian, Mariana Antoinetta Matiocco, he settled at Belle Ile off the coast of Brittany, where he established an artists' colony. He would have 11 children with Matiocco, of whom six survived.
Russell had met Vincent van Gogh in Paris and formed a friendship with him. Van Gogh spoke highly of Russell's work, and after his first summer in Arles, in 1888 he sent twelve drawings of his paintings to Russell, to inform him about the progress of his work. Claude Monet often worked with Russell at Belle Île and influenced his style, though it has been said that Monet preferred some of Russell's Belle Île seascapes to his own. Due to his substantial private income, Russell did not attempt to make his pictures well known.
In 1897 and 1898, Henri Matisse visited Belle Île. Russell introduced him to impressionism and the work of van Gogh; (who was relatively unknown at the time). Matisse's style changed radically, and he would later say "Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained color theory to me."
Russell's daughter, Madame Jeanne Jouve, known in Paris as a singer, has stated that he had built up a collection of impressionist works – Van Gogh, Gauguin, Emile Bernard, Guillaumin – which he intended to give to Australia, but none is known to have survived beyond his death. In 1907, Russell's wife Matiocco died in Paris. Grief-stricken, Russell buried her next to his home and destroyed 400 of his oils and watercolors. Auguste Rodin despaired at the destruction of "those marvels", and in one of his final letters to Russell, said "Your works will live, I am certain. One day you will be placed on the same level as our friends Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh." Russell returned to Sydney, where he later suffered a heart attack, and died in 1930.
Thea Proctor, (1879–1966), a cousin of Russell's, prominent in Sydney art and society circles, did much to promote his work in her later years.
Russell was a friend of Auguste Rodin and Emmanuel Fremiet, and his wife's beauty is immortalized in Rodin's Minerve sans Casque and Fremiet's Joan of Arc. Five of Russell's sons served in France during World War I. His portrait of Vincent Van Gogh painted about 1886-7, was at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in 1938. A sheet of portrait drawings of van Gogh is at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Two watercolors and a small oil painting are in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and there is a drawing in the Adelaide Collection.
John Peter Russell
(1858-1930)
Belle-Île Brittany France Landscape
Approximately 1897
Oil on Canvas; Unfinished Nails Holding Canvas to Wooden Stretcher Bars
The painting measures 17.7"X 23.8"
John Russell original antique painting is in good condition, despite its age. The painting was lightly cleaned in the last two years, from much-darkened varnish, so that the original brilliant colors would show through. Unfortunately, it was not possible to remove all of the old varnish, (as it is set deep within the impressionist brush strokes), so traces of the varnish still remain. Before cleaning, the painting was titled lower right, lightly. (painting has had to be cleaned in increments, and a few times to remove dark orange/ old varnish. Since cleaning, the title is no longer present/visible in the lower right corner of the painting. Due to the lack of a clear signature and title, the painting is listed as an attribution to John Peter Russell. The painting's back wooden stretcher bars are starting to separate and may need to be re-stretched, or the wooden stretcher bars reset. A few very minor defects in the painting, tiny specks here and there, may need restoration, depending on preference. A few very small chips in the sky have been restored. All other paint is original.
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