French Neo-Impressionist Modernist Dog in a Tent Mid 1900-1999 Painting

Neo Impressionist Dog in a Tent by Louis Bellon (French 1908-1998) signed lower left gouache painting on paper, unframed measurements: 11.75 x 16.5 inches provenance: private collection of the artists work, Provence, France Condition report: very good, colour strong, very shallow crease to lower right corner of sheet Interesting Neo-Impressionist 1950’s French painting of a rather lively dog at the entrance to brightly coloured canvas tents, with a handcart visible inside. Some areas of the tent are painted in a pointillist fashion, a method Bellon was exploring in a number of his works which we hold. A slightly surreal air to this one, which will display extremely well. The painting is an unusual example of this much sought after French painters work. Louis Bellon, born in Dijon, began to draw at the age of 14. Enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Lyon, he was taught by Antoine Chartres, an extremely cultivated professor who introduced his young pupil to both art and literature. Bellon was also influenced by the works of André Lhote which he encountered a few years later. Bellon drew his inspiration from a multitude of sources: the Neo-Impressionism of Georges Seurat, the flat colors of the Nabis, the intimacy of works by Pierre Bonnard, the subtle delicacy of Paul Cézanne, the Cubism of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Jacques Villon, both the exciting palette of Matisse and the richness of his line, the Orphism (so named by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire) of Robert and Sonia Delaunay. In 1938, Bellon was elected a member of the Salon of the South-East, one of the most prestigious arts organizations of Lyon where many important contemporary artists exhibited. It was there that Bellon met the Nabi painter Paul Sérusier, allied himself with the Cubist Albert Gleizes, and discovered in the work of Paul Klee an artistic inspiration similar to his own. His work is found in the Museum of Modern Art of Lyon and in numerous private collections.