Harry Bloomfield – Landscape in Provence – Circa 1925

Harry Bloomfield was a British impressionist painter of Jewish origin, born in Bucharest (Romania) on February 23, 1883. He lived between Brussels and Paris, affiliated with the circle of artists at Montparnasse, among them Renoir and Guillaumin. He painted portraits, nudes, landscapes and still lifes in the style of the impressionists. His works stood out for their lyricism, fullness, free form and vigorous execution, denoting his taste for construction in the style of Cézanne. In 1906, he began exhibiting regularly at the Salon des Independants and the Salon d'Automne, where in 1913 he participated with the work titled ‘Femme Assoupie’. After living in Saint-Tropez for a few years in the 1920s, he moved to Algiers, where he quickly blended in with the large artist colony established there. To make ends meet, he founded a small arts academy, where he taught (among others) Jean de Maisonseul (1912-1999), who would go on to become a well-known and successful urban architect and painter. Falling ill in the winter of 1933, he returned to Paris, where he faced increasing financial difficulties. With the rise of Nazism and the imminence of war, he moved to London in 1939, where he died of Leukemia and in absolute poverty a few years later.

Oil on canvas painting representing a landscape scene in Provence, likely in the vicinity of Saint-Tropez, where the artist lived in the latter part of the 1920s. Reminiscent of works by Cézanne in its construction and use of depth, it depicts a large tree in the foreground, and a glimpse of hills and country cottages in the distance.

Sources: Benezit, Dictionary of Artists; Les Peintres britanniques dans les Salons parisiens des origines à 1939. Béatrice Crespon-Halotier, Dijon, 2002; Autour de l'art juif: encyclopédie des peintres, photographes et sculpteurs. Adrian M. Darmon, Carnot 2003; Société d'Etudes Camusiennes, 2007; Les artistes de l'Algérie: dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, 1830-1962, Elisabeth Cazenave, 2001.

Artist: Harry Bloomfield (1883-1941).
Signed in the lower left corner.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very Good condition.
Dimensions: 73 x 60 cm. / 27 ½ x 23 ½ in.
Frame: 81 x 68 cm. / 32 x 26 ¾ in. Gilt wood, good condition.
Origin: France.