Emile NOIROT (1853 - 1924) - Saint Jean Saint Maurice sur Loire

In this work, we can see a wooded clearing that opens onto a branch of the Loire. In the background, the artist lets us guess the slightly misty contours of the medieval tower of the village of Saint-Maurice-sur-Loire (now Saint-Jean-Saint-Maurice-sur-Loire).
The tones are delicately nuanced between the deep greens of the foreground and the softer shades of bluish grey and ochre on the horizon. This chromatic range refers to the colour of the anthraciferous rocks of this volcano-tectonic basin of the Loire Valley.
Émile Noirot was born on 5 June 1853 in Roanne (Loire) and died on 5 June 1924 in Le Bourzat, in the commune of Saint-Germain-des-Fossés (Allier).
Born into a family of artists, he was the son of Louis Noirot (1820–1902), a lithographic painter. His artistic apprenticeship began with his father before continuing in Paris from 1874. The painter then painted on the subject in the forest of Fontainebleau, notably under the tutelage of Camille Corot, Louis Français and Charles-François Daubigny, who influenced his orientation towards landscape painting in the open air. He also followed the advice of Auguste Ravier, before returning to the Roannais (from 1881 to 1920) where he focused on capturing the landscapes of the Loire Valley.
Throughout his career, Émile Noirot remained deeply attached to the Roanne region, the Forez and the Bourbonnais, where he loved the evening effects, the bocages and undergrowth as well as the ponds drowned in mist.
Émile Noirot's talents were recognized on the national and international scene. In 1889, his painting The Rock of the Madonna received an honourable mention at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In 1893, Le Saut du Perron was presented at the World's Fair in Chicago, while Lever de lune à Saint-Maurice won a second-class medal at the Salon of the same year.