Description:

George Rodrigue (American/Louisiana, 1944-2013), "Fishing, 10¢ a Day (Entrepreneurs)", 1976, oil on canvas, signed lower left, signed and dated en verso, titled and artist stamps on stretcher, exhibition label with title on reverse of frame, 36 in. x 24 in., framed with artist plaque Provenance: Acquired from the artist; Roland Begneaud Family Collection, Lafayette, LA. Ill.: Freundlich, Lawrence S. George Rodrigue: A Cajun Artist. New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 80, pl. 53. Exh.: "George Rodrigue: Cajuns and Blue Dogs - Paintings from Louisiana Family Collections 1971-2008", Louisiana State Museum - Wedell-Williams Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum, Patterson, LA, July 17 - Nov. 29, 2008; "George Rodrigue: Legends and Lives of Acadiana", Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA, Mar. 14 - Apr. 26, 2009. Note: Roland Begneaud (1925-1997) was a pharmacist and engineer who started Begneaud’s Pharmacy in the Oil Center of Lafayette in 1963, as a second location to the original opened by his father, Arista Begneaud, at the corner of South Buchanan and Congress Streets in 1939. In 1972, Dickie Hebert, childhood friend of George Rodrigue, worked as a pharmacist for Begneaud and introduced the two. By this time, Rodrigue had opened a small gallery on Pinhook Road in Lafayette, where he painted daily, and had begun to receive early recognition for his work. Begneaud recognized the talent of the emerging artist and as well as the potential in investing in his work. Over the next ten years, he amassed the largest private collection of Rodrigue Cajun paintings to date. According to Wendy Rodrigue, “the two friends became fast business associates, working out purchase agreements, oftentimes hand-written on the backs of the pharmacy’s prescription pads, to help Rodrigue finance the improvements on his single-story Victorian-style home on Jefferson Street. Rodrigue famously (and expensively) raised the house, building an additional floor underneath as his gallery… [W]ith the exception of Roland Begneaud and a handful of other friends, the majority of Rodrigue’s collectors, whether Cajun or Blue Dog canvases, lived outside of Louisiana. And throughout his life, Rodrigue remained grateful to Roland Begneaud for appreciating and nurturing his vision.” In 1976, both Rodrigue and Begneaud celebrated their success when the book The Cajuns of George Rodrigue, featuring eleven works from the Begneaud Collection, was chosen by The National Endowment for the Arts and Rosalynn Carter as an Official White House Gift of State during the Carter administration. Subsequent books published on the artist included further works from the Begneaud Collection, such as the one offered here and illustrated in George Rodrigue: A Cajun Artist from 1996. Upon Begneaud’s death, his family inherited the works, and they have graciously loaned their paintings on numerous occasions for public exhibition. Often based on 1920s-30s period photographs from his mother’s album, Rodrigue’s early Cajun paintings reflect his interpretation of a fading era and his own Louisiana Cajun heritage with a contemporary and unique approach. His timeless figures inhabit a landscape clearly both familiar and beloved by the artist. The two sources of light in the scene, the woman and the light beneath the trees, serve to highlight the often-shadowed landscape of Acadiana and allow Rodrigue’s Cajuns to shine from within with the hope of a displaced people. Ref.: Rodrigue, Wendy. “The Begneaud Collection.” Musings of an Artist’s Wife. Oct. 25, 2016. www.legacyarttour.org. Accessed Mar. 5, 2022.

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April 9, 2022 11:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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