Ratings and values of paintings by Gervais Leterreux

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Artist's rating and value

Gervais Leterreux made a name for himself on the art scene with his scenes of Honfleur. His paintings were marketed and appreciated during his lifetime. Since then, the artist's market value has risen steadily.

Among Leterreux's works, the most sought-after are those depicting harbor scenes, often oil on canvas.

A work signed by the artist can fetch thousands of euros at auction, as demonstrated by his painting Honfleur, le bassin du center, which sold for €3,000 in 2010, whereas it was estimated at between €1,500 and €2,000, suggesting a strong potential for future price increases.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The works and style of Gervais Leterreux

Twentieth-century painter Gervais Leterreux is best known for his landscapes and rural scenes. His artistic output, though diverse, is mainly focused on oil paintings.

Leterreux is always meticulous in capturing the natural light that bathes his subjects, especially fields, forests and small country roads.

The use of soft, earthy colors lends his works a peaceful, even melancholy atmosphere, reinforcing the sense of calm that emanates from his scenes.

In addition to his oil paintings, Leterreux also produced preparatory drawings in charcoal and ink, which he used to refine the composition of his paintings. These sketches testify to his attention to detail, but also to his desire to immortalize fleeting moments of rural life.

His works reflect a sincere love of nature, and he places great importance on depicting the subtle variations of light and color over the course of the seasons.

The artist favors a realistic approach, but with a touch of romanticism that softens the rigor of his realism. His unique style makes him a sensitive observer of the rural world, while retaining a special place in French art history.

The life of Gervais Leterreux

Gervais Leterreux (1930-2003) was a French painter known for his realistic depictions of landscapes and rural scenes. Like some of his predecessors, such asAmbroise Louis Garneray and Claude Joseph Vernet, Leterreux strove to capture the landscapes he observed with precision and emotion.

While Garneray is renowned for his marine paintings, Leterreux focuses his gaze on the vast French countryside, golden fields and tree-lined paths, paying homage to nature and rural life.

From the 1950s onwards, Gervais Leterreux devoted himself fully to painting. He received public and private commissions, notably for works to decorate institutions and official buildings in France.

His style, though rooted in simple, stripped-down realism, also carries a nostalgic dimension, influenced by the work of painters such as Jean-François Millet, whose authentic peasant scenes find an echo in Leterreux's creations.

Like Garneray, who combined his experience as a sailor with his pictorial work, Leterreux succeeds in bringing the beauty of his landscapes to life by infusing them with his own experience and sensitivity. The sincerity of his artistic approach enables him to convey a genuine sense of belonging to the land.

Like his contemporaries, he left behind a rich body of work, bearing witness to a time when nature occupied a central place in art, in contrast to the industrial upheavals of his time.

Details of authentic Leterreux paintings

Gervais Leterreux's imprint on his period

Gervais Leterreux leaves behind an undeniable legacy, particularly marked by his love of marine painting, a genre he revisited in his own way. A native of Normandy, he found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the maritime and harbor landscapes of his region.

Like his illustrious predecessor Ambroise Louis Garneray, a master of marine painting, Leterreux anchors much of his work in depictions of coasts, ports and ships.

Honfleur, with its picturesque harbor and changing lights, occupies a special place in his artistic career. Leterreux immersed himself in the atmosphere of the place, immortalizing its quays, fishing boats and sailing ships through the seasons.

In his canvases, he captures maritime life with almost photographic precision, while preserving a sensitivity that is unique to his style.

His legacy in the field of marine painting is comparable to that of great painters such as André Dauchez or even Eugène Boudinwho were also inspired by Honfleur. Leterreux perpetuates the tradition of these artists while bringing a more contemporary vision.

His works, often exhibited in local galleries, bear witness to his deep attachment to his native region and the maritime world. Beyond his realistic representations, he leaves a poetic and nostalgic imprint, a true tribute to the sea and the people who live alongside it.

Focus on Port de Honfleur, Gervais Leterreux

Gervais Leterreux's painting "Le port d'Honfleur" perfectly captures the unique atmosphere of this Normandy port town, a place the artist cherished throughout his career.

At a glance, the composition transports the viewer into the morning or perhaps twilight calm of a port that still seems to be asleep, bathed in soft, diffused light.

True to his impressionist approach, Leterreux captures the scene with rapid, dynamic strokes, reflecting the spontaneity of the moment while preserving a certain tranquility throughout.

The dominant colors oscillate between cool tones of blue and gray, representing the sky and water, with warmer shades on the buildings and quay. The sky appears to be laden with clouds, but Leterreux avoids the dramatic, preferring to convey a slightly melancholy mood, typical of those damp mornings by the sea.

 The grayish-blue harbor water is painted with a fluid texture, evoking the subtle movements of the waves caressing the quay, as if the entire port were gently moving to the rhythm of the tide.

The boats, barely sketched, blend harmoniously into the landscape, almost melting into the scene. Leterreux doesn't try to capture every detail with precision, but prefers to suggest their presence with allusive touches, like a shadow floating on the water.

This approach is reminiscent of Eugène Boudin, another master of Norman harbors, who also favored general atmosphere over meticulous precision. In Leterreux, as in Boudin, light plays a central role in the composition, lending an almost ethereal softness to the scene.

The buildings in the harbor are painted with great sensitivity. Rather than detailing each facade, each roof, the artist adopts a freer, more intuitive approach, where forms dissolve slightly, leaving room for an interpretation that is more emotional than realistic.

We can still make out familiar structures from Honfleur, a picturesque little port village that seems frozen in time.

These architectures, immersed in a sort of light mist, recall the importance of the relationship between man and the sea in the history of this city. Here, the port becomes a place of work, of passage, but also of contemplation.

With this painting, Leterreux continues a long tradition of painters fascinated by ports and the sea, a theme that has spanned the ages. His work follows in the footsteps of Garneray, Vernet and Boudin, while adding a personal touch of poetry and simplicity.

Where some would have wanted to freeze the port in a realistic representation, Leterreux prefers to capture the essence of the place, the spirit of the moment.

Looking at "Le port d'Honfleur", you can almost feel the salt air permeating the canvas, hear the lapping of the waves and the distant cries of seagulls.

Although devoid of any direct human presence, the work is lively, full of the invisible activity that characterizes these ports, where fishermen, sailors and travelers meet. With this canvas, Leterreux doesn't just paint a place; he captures its soul and makes us feel all its subtle poetry. 

His signature

Not all of Gervais Leterreux's works are signed. Here's an example of his signature:

Appraising your property

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