Description:

George Rodrigue (American/Louisiana, 1944-2013), "Louisiana Bayou with Live Oak Tree", 1971, oil on canvas, signed lower left, signed, dated and artist's and "George Rodrigue Art Gallery, Lafayette, LA" stamps en verso, 12 in. x 16 in., framed. Note: From 1968 to 1971, a young George Rodrigue worked on crafting his unique vision of Louisiana in his paintings by incorporating just three elements: the oak tree, ground and sky. By giving the oak tree prominent placement and shifting the horizon line higher on the canvas, the landscape grew more and more to resemble the Louisiana landscape of the artist’s childhood in Acadiana. Cropping the oak tree at top and illuminating the scene with only intermittent swatches of bright sky, Rodrigue found a unique perspective that left him with an infinite number of arrangements of his three elements; a puzzle which would fascinate the artist throughout his career. In the early landscape from 1971 offered here, Rodrigue’s bayou is a carefully composed composition dominated by the silhouetted oak tree in the background and the road or river (often interchangeable in the swamps of Louisiana) in the foreground. The dark, twisting shape envelopes the lower right half of the canvas, drawing the viewer into the scene. By the early 1970s, Rodrigue had begun to receive critical acclaim for his work. The Louisiana State Art Commission sponsored a Rodrigue exhibition at the Louisiana State Museum in the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge in 1970, featuring seventy oak tree paintings. He also was the subject of a one-man exhibition at the Beaumont Art Museum, now the Museum of Southeast Texas, which opened to rave reviews in August of 1971. His most significant commendation during this period was in 1974. Accepted into the prestigious Le Salon in Paris, he was the only American honored, receiving an honorable mention for his painting “The Class of Marie Courrege.” At the time, the French newspaper Le Figaro described Rodrigue as “America’s Rousseau.” Ref.: Rodrigue, Wendy. “Early Oak Trees and a Regrettable Self-Portrait”. Musings of an Artist’s Wife. www.wendyrodrigue.com. Accessed Mar. 13, 2017. Rodrigue, Wendy. “Museums and Critics, an Early History.” Musings of an Artist’s Wife. www.wendyrodrigue.com. Accessed Mar. 13, 2017.

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April 22, 2017 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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