Charles LAVAL (1862-1994) [FRANCE] - Lot 1

Charles LAVAL (1862-1994) [FRANCE] Fruit Carriers,1889 Watercolor, pen, ink and chalk on paper. Signed and dated lower right. 14.5 x 22 cm Provenance : - Collection Jean Le Corronc, Paris, - Private collection, acquired at the previous sale, Drouot, 10/30/1995, Vente Laurin, Guilloux, Buffetaud, Tailleur, n°3. Exhibition: Maité van Dijk and Jooost van der Hoeven, "Gauguin et Laval en Martinique" Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, exhibition catalog, October 2018 - March 2019, Editions du Fond Mercator, Brussels, illustrated p.73 n°40. The signature on this Laval drawing is unmistakably in Emile Bernard's hand. In Chamaillard's words, Laval returned from Martinique, a few months after Gauguin, in 1888, with "charming watercolors, reflecting all the spirit of Gauguin." But these, "too rare", would have been "shared between the hands of a few comrades". Bernard was undoubtedly one of them, but was he mistaken about the date (as is sometimes the case with these paintings), or did he simply put the date on which the drawing was offered to him by Charles Laval, i.e. probably at the Café Volpini, where the two of them, among others, exhibited in 1889? (Chamaillard's comments are reported by André Salmon: "Chamaillard et le groupe de Pont-Aven", l'Art vivant, July 1, 1925, page 16). [Testimony collected from Victor Merlhès]