Fanch (Francois Ledan), Whimsical Naive Mediterranean Seaside Interior Folk Art Oil Painting Fanch Ledan, 2002

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Francois "Fanch" Ledan (Born 1949) French American artist Oil on Canvas. Hand signed and dated 2002 Dimensions: overall Size: 25 … Read more Francois "Fanch" Ledan (Born 1949) French American artist Oil on Canvas. Hand signed and dated 2002 Dimensions: overall Size: 25 1/4 x 25 1/4 in. Sight Size: 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. Depicts a living room with a view of French doors that are open to reveal a breathtaking Mediterranean seaside vista. Hand signed in center bottom. Titled written in pen on the back: "Mauve Living." Signed again and dated 2002 in pen beneath the title. In 2006 this was appraised for 13,995$ (I can send you a copy of the appraisal). Francois Ledan (best known by his nickname “Fanch”) was born in a small village in Brittany, France in 1949. The youngest child of a doctor and a dentist, he was a child prodigy often left to his own devices, with the resources to explore any and all curiosities. In his early teens he was sent to Paris to complete his education, eventually earning three bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, science, and philosophy by the age of nineteen. Ultimately, however, he discovered and was drawn to the city’s famed arts scene. While a student at the Ecole Superieure des Sciences Commerciales in 1968, Fanch’s artwork was accepted by several galleries and major European exhibitions, and he soon abandoned commercial design in favor of studying abstract painting. He traveled extensively, exploring art in various forms first across Europe, then Asia, and finally in America, where he enrolled in an MBS program at Sacramento State University in 1972. On the day he completed his degree he was offered his first solo exhibition in San Francisco, and spent the next fifteen years in California working full-time as an artist. By the early 1990s he was having yearly exhibitions in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Tel Aviv, gathering many collectors and admirers with his landscapes by blending realistic and surrealist elements together. Having been engaged with printmaking since his first solo show in 1973 he shifted from lithography to serigraphy when he found representation through Circle Gallery and Park West. Today his work is in hundreds of private, public, and corporate collections all over the world, and he divides most of his time between his home studio in the United States and the family estate in the northwest peninsula of France, having visited over 100 countries in his lifetime seeking inspiration from each one. Fanch’s inspiration expresses itself in his signature style. His work is often a study in contrasts, presenting a careful balance of the real and the possible in his interior and exterior landscapes. The exuberance evident in the color and bustle of the images he paints are balanced by his worldly knowledge and an unidentifiable underlying tension. Using high vantage points and deep, distant views, Fanch has the talent of drawing viewers into his work while keeping them removed. His skills intrigue and fascinate collectors around the world, making Fanch one of the most respected and noted artists of today. The art crafted by Fanch Ledan, known today primarily by his Breton nickname “Fanch,” is inextricably tied to the events of his life. While a student in Paris at the Ecole Superieure des Sciences Commerciales in 1968, Fanch’s artwork was accepted by several galleries and major European exhibitions. He soon abandoned commercial design in favor of full-time studies in painting and fine art. In 1972 he entered the MBA program at Sacramento State University and started to display his original acrylic paintings in galleries in California and New York. In 1975, after he learned the difficult technique of lithography, his first edition of lithography was published by Tallandier in Paris. He is noted for delightful scenes of his native Brittany and locales from around the world, executed in a colorful “primitive” or “naïve” style. Similar in feel and style to Michel Delacroix, Jan Balet, Peter Max, James Rizzi and Charles Fazzino. Fanch creates imaginary scenes that run the gamut from worldly and exotic destinations to intimate interiors. Both his landscapes and interiorscapes have a romantic mood and beckon the viewer to enter them. He tries to express both a sense of whimsy and technical detail in each scene. Fanch will often create combinations of locations that cannot exist in reality, like a view of the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids of Egypt from an elegant private balcony. His works feature a remarkable sense of detail and subtlety regarding color, as well. Fanch does not paint the human form within his compositions, civilization is always present, felt from the remnants of a once-occupied space. A pair of eyeglasses, a coffee cup, or other human articles can often be spotted, signifying a human presence. His technique is similar to a draftsman or an architect, drawing first in pencil on his canvas laid flat on a drafting table. Once everything is drawn in pencil, he uses a large brush to paint the background then smaller brushes to fill in all the details. He never uses a palette knife or an easel. His Mediterranean studio is a calm place of creativity. Facing south with plenty of space and a quiet simplicity, Fanch likes to use his studio to paint two or three paintings at a time. He keeps smaller works on the falls of the space and occasionally feels moved to touch-up paintings more than 20 years old. To him, they are never finished. His choices are made instinctively, especially when choosing colors, and he can’t always explain why. Fanch’s talent and achievement in painting were quickly recognized by critics abroad and his work was accepted by the two major European exhibitions: the prestigious “Salons des Artistes Francaises” and the “Salon des Peintres témoins de leur temps.” Fanch became involved with printmaking in 1973 when he learned the difficult technique of lithography in Paris, and later, serigraphy, which became his preferred choice for the creation of original prints. Over the next few years he would work in a number of highly respected printing studios in San Francisco, London, New York, Melbourne, Los Angles, Paris, and Tel-Aviv. His prints have been distributed by major publishers around the world: Original Print Collectors Group, Circle Gallery, Brentano’s, Hammer Publishing, Christie’s Contemporary Art, De Francony, Okuda Art, Blinder Fine Art Collectors, and Park West Gallery. In 1980, he met Armand Hammer in New York, who started collecting his paintings. His artwork is also in the collections of Jacques Cousteau, Baron Bich, Jack Nicholson, John Williams, and Prince Albert. Fanch has done paintings and projects for major organizations and companies like the U.S. Air, Air France, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Tokyo Dome, HAVAS, Esso Exxon, and Yokohama. Following the publication of the book “The Collected Works of Fanch Ledan,” a major catalogue raisonné was published. With 235 color pages illustrating 258 different graphic works published since 1975, it was released by Park West Gallery in 2003. Since 1973, Fanch has had more than 51 shows including exhibitions at the Pantechnicon Gallery, San Francisco; Centro d’Arte Naivo, Milan; Galerie Malle, Aurray, France; Champs-Elysees, Paris; and Park West Gallery. He has participated in group shows in Germany, France, Venezuela, and Italy, as well as in the United States. See less