Raimond Louis Lecourt

Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original oil painting is by the French artist Raimond Lecourt and is dated 1908.<br> The painting is presented and supplied in a sympathetic contemporary frame (which is shown in these photographs).<br> The canvas and the painted surface have benefitted from cleaning, restoration and conservation, which was performed on our instruction, supervision and approval. <br> This antique painting is in very good condition. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.<br> The painting is signed and dated lower left.<br> <br> Raimond Lecourt was a talented French artist with a particular flare for painting equine and bovine subject matter. He was born on 25th January 1882 in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France. His skill as an artist must have been apparent as he became a student at the School of Fine Arts in Le Havre at the very young age. He studied under Charles Lhuillier and his contemporaries were Henri and René de St Delis, Emile Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy, Copieux and Braque. At the age of 17 he moved to the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, where he studied in the studio of Léon Bonnat. After Bonnat’s death he worked with Luc Olivier Merson.<br> <br> In 1907 Lecourt returned to the Le Havre region and settled in Fontaine-La-Mallet, but travelled regularly for painting trips to Normandy, Brittany, Auvergne, the Pyrenees and the Alps. He became a member of the French Artists association. <br> <br> He was mobilised during the Great War, wounded in the arm in 1914, and was later awarded the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918. This was awarded to individuals who were mentioned in dispatches, meaning they distinguished themselves through an act of heroism involving combat with the enemy. His studio was destroyed during the Liberation bombings of 1918, as was much of his catalogue of works. <br> <br> Lecourt exhibited at the Salon, Paris, where he obtained a mention for painting in 1920 and for his engraving work in 1922. <br> <br> He continued painting for the rest of his life, specialising in horse-racing scenes, and landscapes. He died on 1 January 1946 of pneumonia. He was aged 63.<br> <br> Works by Lecourt are held in the collection of the Musée Alphonse-Georges-Poulain and the Art Museum Solothurn in Switzerland.<br> <br> © Big Sky Fine Art<br> <br> This is a charming original oil on canvas painting by the French artist Raimond Lecourt. It is signed by the artist in the lower left section and dated 1908, when the artist would have been 26.<br> It depicts a man in working clothes with his two horses, one white and one brown, at a water trough. The man has his right arm resting affectionately on the shoulder of the white horse as it drinks from the trough. This may be their morning drink, or a respite from the work of the day. This is a summer’s day; it is warm, the sky is a soft shade of blue and the trees are in full foliage. The background is modest, a stone barn to the left and a small cottage in the background. This is a scene of calm and care.