Maurice Bompard (Rodez 1857-Parigi 1935)

Venice, lights and shadows at the Customs. Maurice Bompard (Rodez 1857-Paris 1935) Signed lower right Oil on canvas Coeval gilded frame Canvas cm.138 x 92 frame 171 x 125 Excellent condition A large and luminous view of the Grand Canal waters opening onto the San Marco Basin, amidst lights and shadows at sunset. The image of the island of San Giorgio Maggiore with the church irradiated by the glow of sunset and the round shape of the full moon rising from the lagoon is magnificent. In the foreground, the Customs building with typical Venetian boats docked. The backlit gondola crossing the canal waters vivid with reflections under the moon is pure poetry. The painting is a hymn to the waters of the lagoon and their extraordinary suggestions. The author is the famous French painter Maurice Bompard (Rodez 1857-Paris 1935), specializing in Orientalist painting but also a great interpreter of Venetian views. The canvas is signed and should be placed in his production of the 1880s, during his stay in Italy thanks to a scholarship. The exceptional beauty and importance of the magnificent richly decorated and gilded original frame should be emphasized. Biography : Maurice Bompard was born in Rodez on February 11, 18571, son of Henry Bompard, a merchant, and Rosalie Albouy. He arrived very young in Marseille where he studied painting with Dominique Antoine Magaud. He then went to Paris where he was a pupil of Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre at the Belle Arti. From 1878 he exhibited regularly at the Salon des artistes français. He exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris and at the Colonial Exhibition of Marseille in 1906. He is a founding member of the Société des peintres orientalistes français and exhibits his works at the Salon of Algerian and Orientalist artists of Algiers. In 1882 he obtained a scholarship that allowed him to visit Germany, Italy, Tunisia and Spain. Between 1890 and 1900 he stayed in Biskra in Algeria, where he painted scenes of daily oriental life but also views of Venice. Maurice Bompard died on April 30, 1935 in his home at 167 boulevard Pereire in Paris. Many of his works are exhibited in important museums and public collections in France: Agen, Museum of Fine Arts: Oued Chetma in summer Angers, Museum of Fine Arts: Venice, the Rio San Pietro11; Oued Chetma in summer. Marseille: Museum of Fine Arts: The Butchers of Chetma, Scene of the Harem, The Spinner, Church of the Gesù in Venice. Cantini Museum: Still life with terracotta, Study in Venice. Paris: Louvre Museum: Seated Arab. Musée d'Orsay: The Prayer of the Three Hours, Landscape of the Aveyron, Prayer to the Madonna, Portrait of My Father. Le Puy-en-Velay, Crozatier Museum: The Tripiers of Calle de la Madone in Venice. Rennes, Museum of Fine Arts: the model. Rodez, Museum of Fine Arts: Venetian Interior, the Infanta, Villa d’Este, View of Venice, Piazza San Marco in Venice, The Palaces of the San Marco Basin in Venice. Troyes, Saint-Loup Museum: View of Venice.