La plage

During the summer of 1890, Léon Pourtau stays in Normandie and more precisely in Tréport like famous painters such as Boudin, Monet, Sisley, Renoir or Gauguin who had planted their easels few years earlier seduced by the vibrant light of the area.

In 1889, his friend Georges Seurat, traveled the area and painted Le Crotoy, amont¹ in a little village located few kilometers away from Tréport. The inventor of the technique of the simultaneous contrast of color, considering that no human presence was needed to his masterpiece, represented an untamed nature.

In La Plage, Pourtau, unlike his eminent colleague, ties nature to Men who tend to master it. The sea-dike reminds those sunbathing on the beach, that they have nothing to fear from the sea. Men and women most of whom are looking towards the shore – synonym of progress and better future for the painter – are enjoying the present moment.

La Plage recalls Seurat’s emblematic Un Dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte². Here, Pourtau choses a higher vantage point to depict the burgeoning seaside pleasures. In La Grande Jatte the horizon is limited to a dark green maze that may worry the viewer. In La Plage, Pourtau defines three levels; opening an infinite space proper to his optimism. The sky, the sea, and the beach are rendered using the same generous and multi-touch gesture, while colors are applied according to a clever system of juxtaposition that harmonizes for everyone’s enjoyment.