Christophe Rielland (1932)

A Village in Provence – Circa 1980

Magnificent oil on canvas representing a mountainous landscape of Provence, with the village and the castle of Les Baux-de-Provence, near Arles. The name bauxite derives directly from this place, where the French geologist and mineralogist Pierre Berthier discovered this rock in 1821. The painting is signed in the lower right corner and titled on the back stretcher.

Christophe Rielland, born in 1932, is a contemporary French painter, post impressionist and pro-romantic. A native of Les Sables d'Olonne, Rielland was a house painter at the age of 14. During his military training in Auch, he decorated a fresco of the monumental staircase on a military building. Wanting to do fine arts in Toulouse, he was taken by his colonel to the Cafarelli barracks in Toulouse, and began to take lessons with Raoul Bergougnan, Toulouse painter. He also attended the Beaux-Arts in Tarbes.

Rielland paints seascapes, urban scenes, and romantic landscapes. He works mainly in the Hautes-Pyrénées and the Vendée coast. Influenced by the great masters of the 17th century, and always in search of figurative art, he has participated in regional fairs and collective exhibitions, where he has obtained numerous prizes and distinctions. He has exhibited and been selected in galleries in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon and his works can be found in private collections in the US, Brazil, Belgium and Spain. He is a member of the Maison des artistes français.

Sources: Benezit, Dictionary of Artists; Artmajeur; various French news clippings.

Artist: Christophe Rielland (1932).
Signed in lower right corner.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Excellent condition.
Dimensions: 50 x 62 cm. / 19 ¾ x 24 ½ in.
Frame: 70 x 82 cm. / 27 ½ x 32 ¼ in. Gilt wood, very good condition.
Origin: France.