Cote and value of paintings by Gervais Leterreux

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Artist's rating and value

Gervais Leterreux made his mark on the art scene thanks to his scenes of Honfleur. His paintings were marketed and appreciated during his lifetime. Since then, the artist's market value has risen steadily.

Among Leterreux's works, the most sought-after are paintings depicting harbor scenes, often oil on canvas.

A work signed by the artist can fetch thousands of euros at auction, as demonstrated by his painting Honfleur, le bassin du center, which fetched €3,000 in 2010, whereas it was estimated at between €1,500 and €2,000, suggesting a strong potential for growth and a very high price in the future.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The works and style of Gervais Leterreux

Gervais Leterreux, a 20th-century painter, is best known for his works of landscape and rural scenes. His artistic output, though diverse, focuses mainly on oil paintings.

Leterreux always seeks to capture with great meticulousness the natural light that bathes his subjects, especially fields, forests and small country roads.

The use of soft, earthy colors lends his works a peaceful, even melancholy atmosphere, reinforcing the sense of calm that emanates from his scenes.

In addition to his oils on canvas, Leterreux also makes preparatory drawings in charcoal and ink, which he uses to refine the composition of his paintings. These sketches testify to his attention to detail, but also to his desire to immortalize fleeting moments of rural life.

His works reflect a sincere love of nature, and he places great importance on representing the subtle variations in light and color over the seasons.

The artist favors a realistic approach, but with a touch of romanticism that softens the rigor of his realism. His unique style makes him a sensitive observer of the rural world, while retaining a special place in French art history.

The life of Gervais Leterreux

Gervais Leterreux (1930-2003) was a French painter known for his realistic depictions of landscapes and rural scenes. Like some of his predecessors such as'Ambroise Louis Garneray or Claude Joseph Vernet, Leterreux set out to capture the landscapes he observed with precision and emotion.

While Garneray distinguished himself in marine painting, Leterreux focuses his gaze on the vast French countryside, golden fields and tree-lined paths, bringing a tribute to nature and rural life.

From the 1950s onwards, Gervais Leterreux devoted himself fully to painting. He received both public and private commissions, notably for works to adorn institutions and official buildings in France.

His style, although rooted in simple, stripped-down realism, also carries a nostalgic dimension, influenced by the work of painters such as Jean-François Millet, whose authentic peasant scenes find an echo in Leterreux's creations.

Like Garneray, who combined his experience as a sailor with his pictorial work, Leterreux succeeds in reviving the beauty of his landscapes by infusing them with his own experience and sensibility. The sincerity of his artistic approach enables him to convey a genuine sense of belonging to the land.

Like his contemporaries, he leaves behind a rich body of work, bearing witness to an era when nature occupied a central place in art, in contrast to the industrial upheavals of his time.

Details of Leterreux's authentic paintings

Gervais Leterreux's imprint on his period

Gervais Leterreux leaves behind an undeniable legacy, particularly marked by his love of marine painting, a genre he revisited in his own way. A native of Normandy, he found the maritime and harbor landscapes of his region an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Like his illustrious predecessor Ambroise Louis Garneray, a master of marine painting, Leterreux anchored much of his work in the depiction of coasts, ports and ships.

Honfleur, with its picturesque port and changing lights, occupies a very special place in his artistic career. Leterreux immerses himself in the atmosphere of this place, immortalizing its quays, fishing boats and sailboats through the seasons.

Through his canvases, he captures maritime life with an almost photographic precision, while preserving a sensitivity unique to his style.

His legacy in marine painting is comparable to that of great painters such as André Dauchez or Eugène Boudin, also inspired by Honfleur. Leterreux continues the tradition of these artists while bringing a more contemporary vision.

His works, often exhibited in local galleries, testify to his deep attachment to his native region and the maritime world. Beyond his realistic depictions, he leaves a poetic and nostalgic imprint, a true tribute to the sea and the men who live alongside it.

Focus on Port of Honfleur, Gervais Leterreux

The painting "Le port d'Honfleur" by Gervais Leterreux perfectly illustrates the unique atmosphere of this Normandy port town, a place the artist cherished throughout his career.

At a glance, the composition transports the viewer into the morning or perhaps twilight calm of a harbor that still seems asleep, bathed in soft, diffused light.

Leterreux, faithful to his impressionist approach, captures the scene with quick, dynamic strokes, reflecting the spontaneity of the moment while preserving a certain tranquility throughout.

The dominant colors oscillate between cool tones of blue and gray, representing the sky and water, with warmer shades on the buildings and quay. The sky seems laden with clouds, but Leterreux avoids the dramatic, preferring to convey a slightly melancholy mood, typical of those damp mornings by the sea.

 The grayish-blue harbor water is painted with a fluid texture, evoking the subtle movements of the waves caressing the quay, as if the entire harbor were gently moving to the rhythm of the tide.

The boats, barely sketched, blend harmoniously into the landscape, almost melting into the scene. Leterreux does not seek to capture every detail with precision, but prefers to suggest their presence with allusive touches, like a shadow floating on the water.

This approach recalls that of Eugène Boudin, another master of Norman harbors, who also favored general atmosphere over meticulous precision. With Leterreux, as with Boudin, light plays a central role in the composition, bringing an almost ethereal softness to the scene.

The harbor buildings, on the other hand, are painted with great sensitivity. Rather than detailing every facade, every roof, the artist adopts a freer, more intuitive approach, where shapes dissolve slightly, giving way to an interpretation that's more emotional than realistic.

Honfleur's familiar structures can be discerned, however, in this picturesque little port village, which seems frozen in time.

These architectures, immersed in a kind of light mist, recall the importance of the relationship between man and the sea in the history of this town.

Leterreux, with this painting, continues a long tradition of painters fascinated by ports and the sea, a theme that has spanned the ages. His work follows in the footsteps of Garneray, Vernet and Boudin, while adding a personal touch of poetry and simplicity.

Where some would have wanted to freeze the port in a realistic representation, Leterreux prefers to capture the essence of the place, the spirit of the moment.

Watching "Le port d'Honfleur", you can almost feel the salty air permeating the canvas, hear the lapping of the waves and the distant cries of seagulls.

The work, though devoid of direct human presence, is alive, full of the invisible activity that characterizes these harbors where you come across fishermen, sailors and travelers. With this canvas, Leterreux doesn't just paint a place; he captures its soul and makes us feel all its subtle poetry. 

His signature

Not all of Gervais Leterreux's works are signed. Here's an example of his signature :

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