Hector HANOTEAU (1823-1890). The wine press. Oil... - Lot 429 - Métayer-Mermoz Maison de Ventes aux Enchères Nevers

Hector HANOTEAU (1823-1890). The wine press. Oil on canvas, unsigned. H_148 cm W_280 cm, approx. Unsigned painting, kept in the artist's studio in Briet until its sale at the time of the Marcel Hanoteau estate, in October 1929 (no. 190). Our warmest thanks go to Mr. Dominique RADUFE, a specialist on the artist and author of the forthcoming catalog raisonné of Hector Hanoteau, for the information he provided on this work: The attribution of the canvas reproduced opposite [note from the catalog raisonné; here below] to Hector Hanoteau seems incontestable, judging by its general workmanship and history. J. O., the artist's first the artist's first biographer, who saw the painting in the painter's studio in 1901, describes it as follows: In a basement where the light penetrates through a large opening, men pull a sort of capstan that drives large millstones large millstones between which the apples are crushed. as they have selected a certain quantity from the pile nearby. The note of the painting is very cheerful and the tonal range is expressively vigorous. The work, which dates from the artist's realist period (1850s), remains unfinished. It has undergone a few minor old repaints that seem to have been carried out by another hand - restoration or clumsy the man at the center of the composition.