August Norieri
(American/New Orleans, 1860-1898)

"Along Lake Pontchartrain", 1897

oil on linen
signed and dated lower right.
Framed.
18-1/8" x 30-1/8", framed 24" x 36"

Provenance: Private collection, New Orleans, Louisiana; by descent in the family.

Notes: Born into a middle class New Orleans Italian-American family, August Norieri merged his fascination with the boats and life along the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain with his talent as an artist. His brother Baptiste worked as a tugboat captain and a bar pilot, and provided the artist with insight into the waterways of southern Louisiana. In 1880, Norieri began his studies with the local artist Andres Molinary, who was known for his landscape and genre paintings. Molinary's studio was a favorite gathering place for the local and visiting artists, and Norieri would have been a frequent guest of his mentor. Despite his untimely death in 1898 at the age of 38, Norieri had an accomplished career and exhibited with the National Academy of Design, the Art Association of New Orleans and the Creole Exhibit of the American Exposition in 1885. This charming painting "Along Lake Pontchartrain" provides a glimpse of daily life at the end of the nineteenth century with a view of sailboats in the distance as a fisherman walks with pole in hand along the shore and two men chat in the shade of the live oak tree.

Canvas relined with new stretcher bars. Retained tacking edges. Signs of inpainting to lower center (shore), center right (trees) and upper and mid-left (sky) and mid-right (tree above fisherman's head). Modern frame with surface marks and abrasions.