A MARINE COLLECTION

Marine.

Oil on canvas. Measurements: 29.5 x 53.5 cm. Signature in the lower right corner “H. Durand Brager” and below an illegible text. Framed artwork.

Just as the talent of a portraitist lies in capturing the personality of the sitter, the same happens with the landscape painter. This seascape, the work of the French master mariner Durand-Brager, transports us to the cold, damp and melancholic climate of this coastal scene, absent from the presence of man except for the smoking chimneys and the light that escapes from the open door of the construction. Dense clouds obscure the scene, although at the top left, the sky opens up to broad daylight. On the right, clear water reflects the sky. Ahead, a sailboat rests on the shore. Durand-Brager did not make the central focus on this ship and the marine buildings, he placed them to the right, so that our gaze contemplates in the first scene a group of white herons, and the play of chiaroscuro given between the sea, the sky and the land. In the background, on the horizon and to the left, another large sailing vessel emerges from the mist.

We couldn't identify the location of the scene, and the presence of the birds doesn't help: white herons inhabit, except for Antarctica, on every continent. In any case, it seems to be a factory, due to the dimensions of the buildings.

Its author was the French sailor and artist Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager (Belnoe Castle, Dol, Brittany, 1814 – Paris, 1879), artistically trained with Louis Gabriel Eugène Isabey and Théodore Gudin. He remained in the Río de la Plata between 1840 and 1842 embarked in the squadron of the French Admiral Mackau when the conflict between Rosas and the government of King Felipe was taking place, and said squadron blocked naval access to Buenos Aires. During those years Durand-Brager made several trips to the South, traveling along the Patagonian coast to Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan.

Renowned mariner he recorded in the production of his assignments at French naval stations. The most outstanding collections of his work are in the Vieux-Chateâu de Laval museum and in the Versailles gallery, in addition to other outstanding works in the Angers Bordeaux and Nantes museums. In our region, in the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis (he was assigned to Rio de Janeiro in 1838) and in the National Historical Museums of Montevideo and Buenos Aires; here with four oil paintings, two views -that of Montevideo and of the Fort of Buenos Aires-, and two others that show the Naval Battle of May 24, 1842, in the morning and at night, both reproduced in lithography. Although smaller in his production, he also made costumbrista representations, highlighting that of federal soldiers in 1841. A curiosity in the regional collections is Puerto Argelino preserved in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Asunción. (1)

In 1844 Durand-Brager was made a knight of the Legion of Honour, promoted to officer of the order in 1865. He appeared as a naval and marine historical genre painter at the Paris Salon between 1840 and 1848.

Regarding his work as an illustrator, when Rosas was defeated and forced into exile, he used his notes to highlight the news published in "L' Ilustration" on March 27, 1852, of which he was a regular contributor. Durand-Brager illustrated the successful publication Voyages et découvertes outre-mer au XIXe siècle by Arthur Mangin, among the drawings are those of southern Patagonia and those of the trip of the future Pope Pius IX, with various editions since 1863.

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S.O.XVII-LEMM