Paul LECOMTE
(Paris 1842 - Paris 1920)
The Beach at Brighton
Sold
Watercolour.
Signed and inscribed Paul Lecomte / (Brighton) at the lower left.
237 x 233 mm. (9 3/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
Signed and inscribed Paul Lecomte / (Brighton) at the lower left.
237 x 233 mm. (9 3/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
This view of Brighton beach may be dated to 1887, the date of two other views of the town by the artist. Another watercolour view of Brighton beach by Lecomte appeared at auction in England in 1992, while a watercolour titled ‘Souvenir de Brighton’ and dated ‘30 Mai 1887’ was sold in New York in 1984. A thematically and stylistically comparable, albeit larger, watercolour of a seaside view, Bord de mer à Grand-Camp, was sold at auction in Paris in 2006.
A landscape painter and watercolourist, Paul Lecomte was a pupil of Emile Lambinet. He made his debut at the Salon in 1868, gaining an honourable mention two years later, and thereafter exhibiting yearly until 1912. At the Salon of 1888 he was awarded a third class medal and in 1895 a second class medal. He also won a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Lecomte worked mainly in Paris, where he produced numerous urban views of the city, and in Normandy and Brittany, as well as in the South of France, the Basque region and England. His son, Paul-Emile Lecomte (1877-1950), was also a watercolourist.