George Louis Viavant (American/Louisiana, 1872)

Lot description

George Louis Viavant (American/Louisiana, 1872-1925) , "Ducks in Flight", 1925, watercolor on paper mounted to board, signed and dated lower left, 29 3/4 in. x 20 7/8 in., framed Provenance: Descended in the family of the artist. Note: George Louis Viavant, the son of a New Orleans cotton broker, grew up within the city limits of New Orleans fishing and hunting from his father’s hunting lodge located on Gentilly Road. He began art lessons at the Southern Art Union in 1884 with Achille Perelli, a student of John James Audubon. Viavant drew inspiration for his subjects from the bayous, marshes and creatures of South Louisiana and painted scenes that combined his interest in the natural beauty of wildlife with a naturalist’s close attention to detail. According to the monograph on the artist by George E. Jordan, Viavant created most of his sunrise and sunset swamp landscapes during the hot summer months, capturing the views from memory in his studio and imbuing many of the scenes with a touch of fantasy. Descended in the family of the artist, the large-scale watercolor offered here from Viavant’s last year of life depicts an expansive bayou with a group of ducks taking flight over the water. The composition is framed by tall grass in the foreground and a distant tree-lined shore in the background. Viavant’s mature mastery of the watercolor medium and the meticulous detail that was the hallmark of his well-known nature morte paintings blend into a scene that perfectly portrays the artist’s knowledge of and intimacy with the landscape of Louisiana. Ref.: Jordan, George E. George L. Viavant: Artist of the Hunt. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2003