PROVENANCE:
Previous owner acquired directly from the artist
Private collection, France

ILLUSTRATED:
Xavier de Coulanges, André Brasilier: Catalogue Raisonné, 1982-2002 (v. I), Acatos Publishing, Lausanne, 2004, color illustrated, p. 289

André Brasilier was born into a highly artistic French family in 1929. Throughout his career of over half a century, he strove to establish a distinctive personal style through explorations and experiments in abstract painting and expressionism. Horses, nature, music and women are all subjects he often portrayed, although portraits rank among his favorite themes because he believed that people judge artists by their mastery of the human form. Music, however, is the essence of his art. He had been in love with music since Autour de la musique (About Music), his solo exhibition in 1959. Musical rhythms, movements, chapters and chords have all exerted profound influences on his artistic creation. Nature and horses were also objects he adored. Brasilier’s works are an unequivocal revelation of his passion for life and for nature.

Travel, exploration and discoveries have always played an important role in his artistic career. Over the years, he has left innumerable, indelible footsteps all over Europe, and created large volumes of sketches and artworks over the course of his journeys. He considers the art of painting to be a material production that must on the other hand reflect the true feelings and sensations of life. His lifelong objective has been to seek a balance and harmony between the two. The tranquility and serenity found in Brasilier’s works embodies a distinctive elegance typically seen in Eastern aesthetics, which is why his works are so well received in Japan. He does not consider himself a realist because what he undertakes is the simplification and elucidation of natural sights and the representation of these material essences through an objective perspective. This approach coincides perfectly with the self-restraint and simplicity revered in Japanese aesthetics. Brasilier is a gifted artist in many aspects. In addition to easel painting, in 1985 he illustrated stage settings for two plays and designed the performers’ costumes; later on, in 1987, he undertook the creation of mosaic murals.

Painted in 1998, Le retour des cavaliers exemplifies the artist’s signature style. The canvas is demarcated by magnificent colors while the azure sky in the background is illuminated with pink-tinted clouds. The deep blues and browns of the medium shot resemble the vastness of billowy waves and sandy beach, while across the beach is a stretch of woodlands tinted blue and green. Traversing along the fringe of the forest are four horsemen on their returning journey back home. Brasilier’s beloved horses and natural sceneries are all conveyed in this painting. As he has stated, he delineates his objects neither objectively nor accurately, choosing instead to compose a beautiful melody using a kaleidoscope of color. From woodland to horses, nothing is restricted by the contours of their natural form, but become part of an eloquent animation upon the canvas orchestrated by Brasilier’s symphony of color.