The Seine River Close to Rouen by Georges Bradberry

A Beautiful Pastel of the Seine River not far from the City of Rouen by French Painter Georges Bradberry.

Born a few kilometers from Rouen in 1878 to an English father and French mother, Georges Bradberry was raised immersed in the misty atmosphere of the Seine’s banks.
After a classical education, he enrolled at the Rouen School of Fine Arts and chose pastel as the medium for his delicate art.
His teacher, Joseph Delattre, taught him the sensitivity of the brushstroke and brought him along for long wanderings along the Seine in the Rouen countryside to familiarize him with his vision.

Along with his fellow Rouen painters, he took part in the creation of the ‘Société des Artistes Rouennais’, and regularly exhibited his work at the salons organized by this Society.
Unfortunately, many of Bradberry’s works were destroyed during the First World War.
The interwar period enabled him to broaden his horizons, painting most of the Normandy valleys.
At the end of the war, he returned to the countryside around Rouen, where he enjoyed to capture the effects of light with a subtle intensity of color and atmosphere so fleeting to master.
He passed away in 1959.
He is a painter of great delicacy of vision.

Our Pastel is a perfect illustration of Bradberry’s talents, reproducing with great sensitivity this view of the Seine’s banks.

The foreground is treated in fairly soft tones, to better highlight the trees on the left with their mauve trunks and orange foliage.
The chalk cliffs of Les Andelys, to the south/east of Rouen, mark the horizon.

The choice of colors is particularly judicious, alternately creating a harmonious blend of tones or, on the contrary, sharply contrasted, depending on the depth and desired atmosphere.
Beautifully framed and under glass to protect the pastel, this work is signed lower left.
14 x 18 framed
8 x 11 unframed

France 20th century c.Reference number: R-435