ILLUSTRATED:
Jean-Robert Delahaut, Yves Brayer , Editions Terre d’Europe, Brussels, 1988, color illustrated

This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

SOLOBRENA, ESPAGNE
YVES BRAYER

“Solobrena, Espagne” testifies to Brayer’s love for Southern Spain as it depicts the daily lives of the local as they went on with their daily chores. An adult tending to her child, a woman beautifully dressed in a pink dress walking amidst men leading their domesticated animals with cargos as a man walks out from his dwelling, all set against a complex structures beneath the mountainous mountain tops. In retrospect, Spain, Italy, Provence and Camargue remained Brayer preferred location for his landscape painting. The composition is beautifully adorned with various variations of blue to rendered the sky and the pebbled ground. The memorizing Spanish orangey red roofs tops juxtapose against the bright yellow door and window frames and the walls. The greenery the mountains balances and create harmony. It contrasts with Brayer’s Italian period, which he would frequently utilize palette of terra cotta reds and ochers and diversifies his palettes with further shades of greens, pale yellow and several different tonal variations of shades of blue.

In retrospect, Yves Brayer bough up in Bourges, the artist set out for the academies in Ecole des Beaux-Arts upon his arrival in Paris in 1924 and was encouraged by masters such as Jean- Louis Forain. The artist’s acclaim began early on when his works were displayed at the "Salon d'Automne" and the "Salon des Indépendant" while he was still a student. Yves Brayer was awarded a scholarship and headed for Spain in 1927, this place remains integral as his experience at the Prado museum would subsequently have a great impact on his artistic developments. In 1934, he assembles his work for an exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier, faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, the reception was positively received for the young 27-year-old painter. In 1940 Brayer settled in Cordes sur Ciel in the department of Tarn. When he returned to Paris in 1942, Jacques Rouché appointed Brayer costume-and-set designer for a ballet at the Opera de Paris. It is at this very same place where a museum dedicated to his work would be opened, in 1960.