René Mels (1909-1977) - Saint-Rémy-de-Provence 2 juillet...

René Mels (1909-1977) – Saint-Rémy-de-Provence 2 July 1951, 10 a.m. Watercolor and pencil on paper Watercolor and pencil on paper, signed at the bottom right Date and time in pencil, under the signature: « 2.7.51 – 10h » Place indication at the top left Dimensions: 63 × 47.5 cm (sheet) Unframed Condition: belle feuille, tones light preserved. Paper slightly yellowed, a few handling creases and placement marks. No significant loss visible. See photos. Presented as is. Description Large watercolor taken from the motif in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, on July 2, 1951 at 10 o’clock. The village sprawls between fields and roofs. In the foreground, a wide road and low walls; in the center, a group of houses with pink and ochre roofs, a yellow facade on the right, a bell tower and masses of pines. Small touches of color — red, yellow, blue — indicate figures in front of the façades. The horizon is restrained by long strokes, the sky washed with rose and very pale blue. The pencil remains visible everywhere: construction lines, hatching, erasures. The watercolor is laid on in broad touches, not filling the sheet. Greens, pinks, ochres and a pale yellow in the bottom right suffice. It is a working sheet, dated to the time, still tied to the French stay opened by the State scholarship of 1950 (Atelier 17, Hayter), just before Mels joined the Abstract Art group in 1952. Generous format for a watercolor from this year. Biography René Mels (René Meulemans, 1909-1977), born in Herent-lez-Louvain, trained at the Académies of Leuven and Brussels, then at La Cambre. From 1931 he exhibited an expressionism influenced by Constant Permeke. He participated in the Art Jeune salons (1938, 1941). After this figurative period, he moved toward abstraction from 1947. An active member of Jeune Peinture Belge (exhibitions 1947-1948 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels), he joined the Abstract Art group in 1952 and co-founded Cap d’encre in 1963. In 1950 a State scholarship allowed him to work at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris. His work is characterized by a concern for construction, a fluidity of writing and an expressive chromaticism. His paintings, watercolors and engravings are in numerous public Belgian and international collections, notably at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Large watercolor of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, signed, dated and timestamped by the artist’s hand. Sheet from 1951, unframed, between the Paris stay and abstraction. Generous format, controlled light, workshop-visible condition.

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