Object Literature
Edouard Louis Joseph Braquaval was a landscape and townscape painter who was born in Esquermes, Lille in 1856. He studied at Honfleur under the famous Eugene Boudin, a friend of his wife’s family. Like Boudin, he painted views of Normandy as well as the Picardy coast where the family had a house in St Valery. It was whilst staying there in the early 1890’s that he met Edgar Degas who became his friend and introduced him to Parisian art circles. It was Braquaval who encouraged him to make his late series of landscape paintings.
He did not exhibit until relatively late in life, starting at the Paris Salon in 1892 and then exhibiting at Arras from 1898. He also exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale from 1907-1914 and the Salon d’Automne from 1909-10 as well as at the Salon des Indpendents. In 1914, he was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour. Braquaval died at St Valery in 1919.
A number of his paintings can be found in museums such as the Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville, the Musée d’Orsay, Musée Municipal, Amiens, the Mulhouse museum, the National Gallery and the Columbus Museum. In 1969, The Kaplan Gallery, London produced a major exhibition of his work in recognition of his importance and re-igniting interest in his paintings.
The work is housed in a new, English made giltwood frame, which is in excellent condition.