Bateaux French Impressionist Oil Painting of Fishing Boats and Lighthouse

Title: Bateaux French Impressionist Oil Painting of Fishing Boats and Lighthouse
Signed by Fanch Lel
Size: 8.75 inches (height) x 10.5 inches (width)
Medium: Oil on board, unframed
Condition: The painting is in good condition with slight edge wear consistent with age.
Provenance: All the paintings we have for sale by this artist have come from the artist’s estate and have had no previous owners at all.

Description:
Titled “Bateaux” (French for “boats”), this original oil on board by Fanch Lel offers a moody and atmospheric depiction of a fishing port, where vessels float against a churning sea and cloudy sky. Painted in a characteristically expressive style, Lel’s technique embraces thick brushwork and broad strokes of grey, cream, blue, and peach to evoke a moment of stillness before—or after—a storm.

Three boats, each angled slightly and tilting with the waves, dominate the foreground. To the left, a lighthouse painted in pale tones with orange highlights acts as a visual anchor, its cylindrical structure rising calmly amidst the turmoil. The sky is rendered in sweeping bands of colour, suggesting fast-moving clouds or sea spray catching the light, and the water mirrors the palette with shadowed patches and rippling movement.

Fanch Lel’s impressionistic handling of the paint, combined with his use of unblended tones and gestural marks, gives this piece a raw immediacy. Though abstracted in form, the painting clearly communicates the maritime themes that recur throughout Lel’s work: the resilience of coastal life, the movement of weather, and the human-made vessels that navigate these natural forces.

The title inscribed on the reverse, simply Bateaux, reflects Lel’s straightforward yet poetic view of the world—his boats are anonymous but evocative, standing in for countless scenes witnessed along France’s Atlantic and Mediterranean shores. This piece will appeal to collectors of nautical artwork, abstract expressionist coastal scenes, or anyone seeking to bring texture and atmosphere into a space.