This charming petite urban landscape dates from the late nineteenth / early twentieth century and is by French artist Frédéric Christol (1850-1933).
Some information from the great-grandson of Frédéric Christol.
This painting is of the village of Fontaine-Lavaganne in the Oise where Christol had acquired a house in 1925 and where he is buried. The houses are mud houses, traditional material used for peasant houses in the region.
A second similar painting is also available.
An excerpt from www.plants.jstor.org
French artist and missionary. He learned to draw at night school while working during the day as an architect's apprentice in Paris, and at nineteen won a place at the Beaux Arts, in the studio of the orientalist painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. He was able to finance painting expeditions in Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East, from his income as a drawing teacher in the Paris schools, and exhibited some of his portraits and landscapes in the Salons of 1874 and 1880. He married the daughter of the Director of Zion Orphanage in Jerusalem, and in 1882 moved with her to southern Africa, after being inspired to join the Paris Evangelical Society by the missionary work of François Coillard. In his published memoirs, Au Sud de l'Afrique, illustrated, like his many books on Christianity and on African art and culture, with his own drawings, he recalls the 26 years of his mission in Lesotho. Shortly before repatriating, he made collections from the region, which he brought back to France.
Sources:
M Prevost and J. Balteau, 1933, . de biographie française: 1291.
References
Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Bot. Explor. S. Afr. (1981): 116; Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. A-D (1954): 127
Condition and wear consistent with age and use.
Approx. overall 8¾" x 11"
Approx. overall 22cm x 28cm
