Jean Monge (1916-1991) - Paysage

Jean Monge (1916-1991) - Perched Provencal village. Gouache.

Jean Monge is a painter of the French School of the 20th century, whose work sits at the heart of post-war modernist movements (1950s-1960s). He developed a specialty in village landscapes and still lifes with strong geometric structures, drawing on the heritage of Paul Cézanne and analytical cubism.

The palette juxtaposes stunning blocks of pine green, ochre yellow, and bright white for the façades, topped by a neutral, heavy sky. It is a work that is highly structured, tense, and of striking visual modernity.

The painting depicts a Provençal perched village嵀embedded on the hillside of a verdant slope. The composition relies on bold black or dark outlines that delineate the shapes (the houses, the roofs, the church tower or the chimney at the summit), a technique characteristic of the post-war expressionist movement of the Paris School (as seen in artists such as Bernard Buffet or Auguste Chabaud).