James Desvarreux-Larpenteur (1847-1937)
Heather in Bloom
Oil on canvas

Signed lower right J. Desvarreux. 10 ½ x 13 ½ inches (27 x 34 cm), the frame 16 x 19 inches (41 x 48 cm). Swept frame with scrolls and shells. Good original condition, unlined.

The canvas shows through the paint almost everywhere. In the sky a few thin passes of blue and cream leave the weave plainly visible, and even in the heather the color sits on the grain rather than hiding it.

A bank of flowering heather in rose and violet rises from the lower left to a low crest at the right, broken by dark green clumps and a few white sprays. Beyond it a pale field runs flat to a line of trees, with the red roof of a farm just showing among them. In the foreground, just left of the signature, a single pale green plant with small yellow buds stands up out of the heather.