Maxime Maufra (France, 1861-1918) Mer Clapoteuse Signed and Dated "Maufra 1904" (lower left) Oil on Canvas Unframed:39 inches W (99.06 cm)44 inches H (81.28 cm) Framed:51 inches (129.54 cm)44 inches (111.76 cm). Provenance: Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris. Purchased by Earnest Emile Allgeyer in 1904. Descended through Allgeyer family through present day. Literature: Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy will include this painting in her forthcoming catalogue critique of paintings by Maxime Maufra. Photos of paperwork are included. Maxime Maufra (France, 1861-1918) was a French marine and landscape artist who worked in the style of French Impressionists, notably Alfred Sisley. He was trained in landscape painting by Charles Le Roux (France, 1814-1895), and famously gave up his career in business to become a full-time artist after famously seeing the works of Joseph Mallord William Turner (Britain, 1775-1851) and John Constable (Britain, 1776-1837). When the artist returned to France, he came across the work of the Impressionists, and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1886. In 1890 Maufra devoted his life to painting and traveled and painted in Brittany, oftentimes painting with the Pont Aven school, influenced by Gaugaun and Paul Serusier. The painting, Mer Clapoteuse (Choppy Seas) is from the artist's best known period in Brittany or Normandy, and features swirling, white capped waves crashing against the jagged rocks of the French coastline. Maufra oftentimes painted in foul and turbulent weather, working en plein air, his easel held and supported against the wind and rain by his wife. The work retains its original stretcher and obtains, quite possibly, its original gilt frame.Museum Collections: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Musee des Beaux-Arts, Brest Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Musee d’Orsay, Paris, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pont-Aven, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Quimper Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rheims Musee de Vannes, Vannes Tate Britain, London

Examined under black light. Pictures included. Surface has an even layer of dirt with expected yellowing. Uncleaned, and in un-restored, original condition. Early and possible original gilt frame.