Chapel in Simiane (Kaplicka v Simiane)

OTAKAR (OTHON) COUBINE (Czech, 1883-1969)

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Chapel in Simiane (Kaplicka v Simiane)

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Oil on canvas

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Signed lower right

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Size: 20 x 24 in. (51 x 61 cm)

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Provenance:

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Estate of Ladislas Hudak, Ottawa, ON;

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By descent.

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Ladislas Hudak was a diplomat for Czechoslovakia who emigrated to Canada after WWII. Hudak was Consul General in Marseilles from 1945-1948. He left the consulate and his post when the Communists took over the Czechoslovak government in 1948 and lived in Roque Brun Cap Martin in the South of France until 1951. Prior to 1945 he had postings in Romania, and also worked in Corporate Law based in Prague.

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Expertise provided by Rea Michalová, Ph. D., Art Historian and Curator:

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ARTISTIC HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT

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OTAKAR (OTHON) COUBINE (1883-1969)

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The assessed painting "Chapel in Simiane" is authentic, very beautiful, unusually colorful, and a fresh example of Coubin's landscapes in the artist's typical neoclassicist style.

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Otakar (Othon) Coubine is one of the few Czech Artists who have earned their recognition abroad. France became his second home, the southern province of Provence, where he spent more than half his life, and whose land has become his lifelong inspirational source. His work has gone through a remarkable artistic development from neo-impressionism through Gauguin-esque expressionism and unorthodox Cubo-Expressionism, which helped him develop his particular style based on the influences of the New Classicism. Coubine's particular style launched him into the French Post war

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movement called "Return to Order" (retour à l'ordre). This movement launched him into direct competition with Pablo Picasso.

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Otakar (Othon) Coubine found the "arcade of his life and art" (as he himself expressed) in the French Low Alps (Basses- Alpes; today called the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the Upper Alps Provençal) in an unpretentious and somewhat neglected Aix-En-Provence, approximatly 50 km north of Provence, where Cézanne also created his works of art. Here he discovered the landscape of the hills and valleys, fields of lavender, olive trees and almond trees, not only for himself, but even for the French, who rewarded this by adding him to their foremost painters.

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The town of Simiane-la-Rotonde (permenatlly settled in 1925) was named after a medieval rotunda (donjon), crowning a cluster of homes on a rocky cliff. He expressed his enthusiasm for that unforgettable place to the poet Jirí Karásk of Lvovice: "I bought an old house in Simiane, which of course I need to fix. No one has stepped foot into this house for 50 years, the peace and

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beautiful view has convinced me to move.. .". Coubine pays tribute to the simple architecture of Simiane in this work.

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The Chapel Notre-Dame-de-Pitié (Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrow), dated to the 16th century, dominates the landscape, naturally grows into the countryside of simple stone walls, among growing olive trees and typical Provençal vegetation. Coubine discovered the greatest "miracle" of the Provençal landscape to be represented by light - the image evenly spreads over the entire area of the canvas and thus unifies and harmonizes all the shapes. This adds to the painting, peace and order, energy and lyrical charge. It represents a painterly element and at the same time a spiritual element. For Coubine, The light is a form of the knowledge of eternity and permanence.

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The assessed picture "Chapel in Simiane" is a lyrical landscape a powerful spell, an oasis of unbroken peace, stability, and noble harmony. The use of lemon and sulfur yellow, inspired by by van Gogh, proves once again that Coubine, even in the classical period of "Return to Order" was able to embrace an expressive palette of colours.