Cueillette de fleurs dans l'Esterel

An Expressionist oil on canvas titled " Cueillette de fleurs dans l'Esterel" (Flower picking in the Esterel)
The Esterel mountains are a Mediterranean mountain range in the south of France.
Beautiful colors with heavy impasto.
Signed lower left and again verso along with title and date 1959.
Canvas measures 25.5 x 21.5 inches.
Framed size is 34.5 x 30.25 inches

Edouard Goerg was born in Sydney, Australia in 1893. His parents were French. After spending several years in England, he settled with his family in Paris in 1900. Between 1910 and 1914, Goerg traveled to France, Italy, and India.

Goerg studied at Academie Ranson in 1913-1914 with Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier. He was mobilized for World War One and was in the military until 1919. During his time in the military, he traveled to Greece, Turkey, and Serbia.

After being refused several times, he was accepted at the Salon des Indépendants. in 1922, he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries, and Salon des Pientres Témoins de Leur Temps, as well as Salon d 'Art Français Indédendant.

Goerg exhibited at Galerie Berthe Weill in 1922 and 1924, included were his friends and contemporaries Marcel Gromaire, Jules Pascin and Per Krogh.

His first one-man exhibition was in Paris in 1925. He showed in Brussels at Galerie du Centaure in 1926, Nouvel Essor, in 1927 and 1929 at Galerie Georges Bernheim. Goerg continued to exhibit for the following four decades. He had an exhibition at museums in San Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Athens.

Goerg also exhibited in New York, Findley Gallery in Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. Goerg illustrated more than dozen books.

Early in Goerg's career he was compared to James Ensor, the Belgian who was part English, and whose work was a forerunner of Expressionism. Goerg's paintings are surely rooted in Expressionism, the mood is somber, the colors deep, and his figures are haunting. His early works have elements of Cubism, but he abandoned that discipline.

His paintings contain social commentary, strange and unusual composition, and the dark eyes of his subjects suggest hidden secrets. There are strong parallels between Éduard Goerg and Marcel Gromaire. They exhibited together and their artistic documentation of Paris over a period of several decades gives the observer a deep insight of Les Année Folles.
Waldemar George wrote a small illustrated book on Goerg in 1929, and a large book with much color illustration in 1960. Gaston Diehl also did a book on Goerg in 1947 and is included in Raynal's Modern French Painters, and Jean-Jacques Leveque's Les Années Folles.