'Equestrienne' by Henri Ottmann, Salon D’Automne, Musée Du Luxembourg, French Post-Impressionism

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Signed lower right, 'Henry Ottmann' (French, 1877-1927) and created circa 1915.

An elegant pencil and ink-wash drawing showing two women … Read more Signed lower right, 'Henry Ottmann' (French, 1877-1927) and created circa 1915.

An elegant pencil and ink-wash drawing showing two women conversing, one seated side-saddle on horse and the second framed in a window. This unusual and intimate figural scene which shows this French Post-Impressionist at the height of his expressive powers.

Born in 1877 in the Loire Valley, Henri Ottmann first exhibited in the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels in 1904 and, from 1905, at the Salon d’Automne, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Salon des Tuileries among other Parisian Salons.

Benezit, which also gives a signature sample, calls Ottmann “…a delicate expressionist colorist filled with sensitivity…” Ottmann’s cityscapes of Paris, still-lives and figural works are all composed with a subtle elegance and painted in a dramatic, yet refined, palette. Henri Ottmann exhibited widely and with success and his work is held in the permanent collections of numerous national museums including the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris), La Courtisane Endormie; and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville (Paris), Le Pont de Meulan. Benezit further observes “…(Ottmann) became, and remains, a charming painter of women. It is in his nudes that he finds his most perfect expression.”

Reference:
Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Vol. 10, p. 447; Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler, Vol. 26, p. 90; Davenport’s Art Reference Guide, 2007/8 Edition, p. 1780; et al. See less