Dieudonné Jacobs (1887-1967) - Le Ruy de Chevron

Dieudonné Jacobs (1887-1967) - "Le Ruy de Chevron" (Spa) - c. 1925-1945 - With period cornice

Technical DetailsArtist:
Dieudonné Jacobs (Belgium, 1887 – 1967)
Title/Subject: "Le Ruy de Chevron" (Landscape in the Belgian Ardennes, Liege province)
Technique: Oil on pressed cardboard (period support typical for plein air painting)
Era: Circa 1925 - 1945 (Interwar period / the artist's maturity in Spa)
Dimensions of the work: 40 x 30 cm
Dimensions with frame: 49 x 39 x 4 cm
Inscriptions: Titled and localized on the back in contemporary cursive script: «Le Ruy de Chevron / Loc. - Près Spa / Belgique».
Historical notes from inventory/gallery present ("42" circled and "1500" underlined).
Biographical adhesive label on the back.
Signature: Present in the lower right, partially fused and integrated with the dark tones and the painting’s material.
Condition: Good and consistent with the era (a work of about 80-100 years). The painted surface is stable with physiological craquelure and natural oxidation of the protective varnish.
Period frame in molded solid wood with slight and normal signs of time.

The painting depicts a view of the Ruy de Chevron (historically also known as Ruy de Chefna), a mountain stream located in the Belgian Ardennes, near the renowned spa town of Spa.
The work is attributable to the mature production of Dieudonné Jacobs, dating from the late 1920s to the 1940s, a period during which the artist devoted himself intensively to documenting the local forest landscape.
Executed on pressed cardboard – a rigid support favored by the region’s post-impressionists for outdoor work due to its practicality – the painting is built through a solid, dense impasto application.
The color palette, played in cool, shadowy tones of the undergrowth, is punctuated by effective strokes of golden light that illuminate the profiles of the gorge and reflect on the foreground water surface. Bottom right, the artist’s dark signature strokes partially blend with the background color density, integrating into the composition.
The work is completed by its original wooden frame.

Biographical Notes on the Artist
Dieudonné Jacobs (Liege, 1887 – Monte Carlo, 1967) was an important figure of Belgian Post-Impressionism. After academic studies in Liege and earning the prestigious Belgian Prix de Rome in 1913, he spent long periods in Italy and France, becoming a valued painter of the French Riviera. He maintained an inseparable link with the city of Spa, where he resided and worked for many years and which later honored him with a bronze public monument. Jacobs is known for a strongly material painting language oriented toward the study of atmospheric light. The six works are included in various European public collections and regularly appear on the international auction market.