Henri Lebasque

Denise Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque, Catalogue raisonné, Neuilly-sur-Marne, 2008, vol. I, no. 1353, illustrated p. 327

In the present work, Lebasque has eloquently captured a tranquil afternoon in the south of France, enjoyed by Nono, the artist's daughter, resting in a hammock. The palette and subject are quintessentially Lebasque; carefully modelled colour tones and a clever, inviting composition. The subject rests easily in the shade of the surrounding trees. We are drawn in by the light to the centre, which creates a halo around Nono's face and into which the viewer is naturally led.

According to Lisa Banner, ' He was hailed as the painter of "Joy and Light" by art critics and curators of the Louvre in his later life. But Lebasque's primary concerns were with simple expression of sensuous surface... He achieved an intimate manner of painting those scenes and people most dear to him, which was replete with his personal delight in form and colour, heightened by his contact with fellow painters Matisse and Bonnard, but characteristically his own' (L. Banner, Lebasque, 1865-1937, San Francisco, 1985, p. 20).