Beschreibung:

HENRI LEBASQUE (FRENCH 1865-1937)
LE PRADET, JEUNE FILLE DANS L'OLIVERAIE
Oil on canvas
Signed (lower right)
72 x 64cm (28¼ x 25 in.)
Painted circa 1911.
Provenance:
Galerie du Drap d'Or, Cannes
Private Collection, London (acquired from the above in 1971)
Thence by descent to the late owner
Literature:
Denise Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque, Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Paris, 2008, no. 1332, illustrated p. 322
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Madame Christine Lenoir and Madame de la Ville Fromoit.
 
In 1906, at the instigation of his friend and fellow painter Henri Manguin, Lebasque visited the Provence region of France. It was an experience that was to radically influence his painting. The unique Mediterranean light proved irresistible to Lebasque and for the next thirty years, his works would be dominated by the landscape of the south of France. The family spent prolonged periods in the region, at Saint-Tropez in 1906, Sanary in 1911, Nice in 1913, Sainte-Maxime in 1914, Cannes in 1920 and Le Pradet in 1923.. Finally, in 1924, Lebasque left Paris for good and settled at Le Cannet, north of Cannes, where he was to remain for the rest of his life.
Le Pradet, close to Toulon, is an area that Lebasque painted on a number of occasions from circa 1911. The figure reading under the olive tree is almost certainly one of the artist's daughters.