Juvenal Sansó (b. 1929)

Never to Forget (Brittany Series)
signed (lower right)
ca 1970s
acrylic on canvas
24” x 28 1/2” (61 cm x 72 cm)

PROPERTY FROM THE DON BENITO J. LEGARDA JR. COLLECTION

Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist

This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Fundacion Sansó confirming the authenticity of this lot

Juvenal Sansó started his enduring romantic affair with nature when he was invited
to the country home of Agnes Rouault and her husband Yves Le Dantec in Brittany
in the mid-1960s. Enraptured by the sea and the wild and rocky but very expressive
coastline, Sansó was immediately swept off his feet. Brittany’s secluded shoreline
became a source of healing for his traumatic experiences in war-torn Manila. Since
then, he kept coming back to the region for the next 24 summers until the death of
Le Dantec.
As John Ashberty of the New York Herald Tribune had written, Sansó “shows
attractively wishful landscapes and sea-coast scenes”. His Brittany Series captures
nature in a secluded yet opulent setting, making it the protagonist of his artworks.
The distinct rock formations featured in this specific painting are proof of his
polished brushwork and his meticulous attention to detail. His impression of the
rock formations of the rugged Brittany coastline pressed against a backdrop of an
ethereal, blue sky with pinkish clouds displays his high regard towards the solitude

that the place had brought him. Sansó’s palette, as described by critic Rod. Paras-
Perez, is “as austere but rich in its modulation” where blue or orange are the salient

hues. He also noted his handling of lines, specifically of calligraphic gestures, writing
that it “is of such density and intensity, so pervasively part of the visual structure that
it could be generated only by sustained passion”.