Louis Valtat, French 1869-1952- Deux Pommes,1942; oil on board, signed with initials lower left, 12x13cm (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's Olympia, 20 March 2003, lot 156; Private Collection, London; thence by descent. Literature: Dr Jean Valtat...

Louis Valtat, French 1869-1952- Deux Pommes,1942; oil on board, signed with initials lower left, 12x13cm (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's Olympia, 20 March 2003, lot 156; Private Collection, London; thence by descent. Literature: Dr Jean Valtat, 'Catalogue Raissone de I'oeuvre peint', 1869-1952, Paris 1977 vol.I p.309 no.2773 illustrated Note: This piece is by the French painter and printmaker Louis Valtat. Valtat studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Jules Lefebvre, Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant. He also later went to the Academie Julian, where he was taught by Jules Dupre, and his fellow students included Albert Andre, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis. Valtat was friends with many of the key French Impressionists, including Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, and Paul Signac, and worked with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Valtat’s connection with some of the most influential artists of the early twentieth century undeniably influenced his work, which incorporated stylistic and technical elements from Pointillism, Impressionism, and Fauvism. Despite being associated with all of these movements, and with Fauvism in particular, Valtat was never a member of any of these groups, instead maintaining his own unique and individual style.