The Lunch on the Terrace, Villerville, 1886
Oil on canvas, H. 0.81 m; W. 1 m
Signed and dated lower right: E. DUEZ. 1886
Provenance: Collection M. Révillon
Collection M. Desparmet-Fitz-Gérald
Private collection
Report from the international jury, Exposition Universelle 1900, Léonce Bénédite, vol. 1, part 2, Paris 1904, illustrated p. 339.
Official Catalogue illustrated, Exposition Centennale de l’Art Français de 1800 à 1889, discribed and illustrated as n°263.
Album Braun, photo n° 1996/1765.
Bruno Delarue, Les peintres à Trouville, Deauville et Villerville, 1821-1950 ; ill. p. 218 et 219.
Duez debuted at the Salon of 1868 with Mater Dolorosa but it wasn’t until 1874 that Duez attained a level of success that any artist would aspire to. At the Salon of that year, he exhibited Splendeur et Misère for which he was given a third-class medal. Having found success, Duez became intrigued by landscapes and he moved to Villerville, between Trouville and Honfleur in Normandy. Much of his work from this point on is based on scenes at the beach, with young women holding their parasols, enjoying the scene, or children playing near the water. He simply paints, the people that he meets each day, placing them in their appropriate milieu. It was this sense of naturalism that would both surprise audiences and make him a strong artist espousing the precepts of Impressionism.
Ernest-Ange Duez (1843-1896) was a friend of Sargent’s. They both had studios at the boulevard Berthier and were part of the same social circle that included Albert Besnard, Gabriel Fauré, and Joseph Roger-Jourdain.