Jan RUBCZAK (Stanislawow 1882 - Auschwitz 1942)... Lot 8

Jan RUBCZAK (Stanislawow 1882 - Auschwitz 1942) Port in Brittany, Audierne Made in 1917 Oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm Signed and dated lower right " Jan Rubczak 917 " On the back, old collection label " Collection Zborowski 3 rue Joseph Bara Paris N° 188 ". Stamp of the German customs partially legible " PR. Zollamt (...) Dusseldorf". Antique label No. "9960". Exhibition: Jednoróg, April-May 1925, Krakow Fine Arts Society, No. 146 "Port in Brittany", reproduced. Provenance: Former Leopold Zborowski collection. A certificate of authenticity from the EBMC will be given to the purchaser. In the artistic career of Jan Rubczak, an experienced landscape gardener, particularly fascinated by the sea, of which he left numerous representations, the views of Brittany constitute a privileged motif. The artist made several stays there, at least since 1911, notably in Quimper, Quiberon, Concarneau, Lannion, Pont-Croix and Audierne. The port and the seaside in Audierne are the subjects of several of his paintings which he exhibited at the Parisian salons, for example at the Salon des indépendants in 1913 and 1920 and at the Salon d'automne in 1919. The painting The port in Brittany, Audierne is an exceptional and resolutely innovative work both in composition and colour. The composition of an audacious plunging view of the small port is based on the dynamic curves of the quays and hills punctuated by the vertical lines of the boats' masts. The artist moves away from his favourite pastel tones in favour of sustained, bold colours, such as the blue of the water in the harbour basin, which contrasts with the colour of the white walls, the red roofs of the houses, the lighthouse, the sails hoisted from a distant boat, and the dark red of the sails of the boats moored in the harbour. In his search for modernity, the painter does not hesitate to distort the silhouette of the boats' hulls. The painting w