Vallée du Rhone

20th-century French School oil painting on canvas signed in the lower left Loÿs Prat (1879-1934) and titled "Cliffs overlooking the Rhone Valley". The work has texture to the touch.

This southeastern French landscape shows character and a small herd at the top of a rounded cliff overlooking the valley. The thick and expressive brushstrokes across the rock demonstrate how light mutes and transforms in a landscape. The colors and perspective provokes a contemplative effect, familiar to hikers and those who seek viewpoints.

About the artist: Louis Joseph Prat, known as Loÿs Prat, was a French painter born in Donzère (Drôme) on October 6, 1879. He died in Avignon (Vaucluse) in November 1934.

He won a scholarship at the age of 17 to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Three years later, he moved to Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In the City of Lights, he became a pupil of the painter Fernand Cormon, as did Vincent van Gogh, Louis Anquetin, Henri Matisse, Émile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

He took part in the Salons and prepared for the Prix de Rome where he finished second in 1908 and then Prat produced theater sets before being called to serve in the First World War. 

• Overall Size: 24.2" x 28.5" / 61.5cm x 72.5cm.
• Size without the frame:  21.2" x 25.5" / 54cm x 65cm.
  
• Country: France. 
• Signed: Loÿs Prat (1879-1934).
• Date: Early 1900s.
• Condition: The canvas is in very good condition. The frame also despite some rare traces.
  
• Materials: Oil on stretched canvas in an antique wood frame.
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