[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

JACQUIER, Marcel-J.-L. [1877-1957]

“Voiles Rouge” / Red Sails

oil on board / 13.2 inches by 10 inches

ca1940

Through the occasional wonders of the internet, our acquisition of Marcel Jacquier’s folio of WWI images Somewhere in France came to the attention of the artist’s granddaughter Mlle Azilis Roparz. Impressed with the obtuse connection between our two countries represented by her grandfather’s work, she gifted the collection this painting of about 1940, perhaps earlier.

Though he was born in Paris, Jacquier became a member of the Breton School of painting (in that rural part of western France called Finisterre or Land’s End) and used several picturesque coastal settings as his subjects. Here the title refers to the red-sailed boats in the tidal river estuary, possibly the fishing community of Brest.