Lina Bill (Louis Bonnaot) (1855-1936) - A la Capte environs de Giens (Hyères)

Animated watercolor depicting Provençal huts and small boats at La Capte (Var). Signed L Bill at the bottom right and drawn in pencil on the back.

Son of a wealthy shipowner, and little or not drawn to the sea, Louis Bonnot decides to devote his life to painting. Choosing to represent water, the sea, Provence and the Mediterranean, he adopts the pseudonym Lina Bill and becomes a watercolorist, though he also practiced oil painting.

Married and with a child, he leaves his family, his native village and settles in Toulon as a painter and photographer during the 1880s. In 1886, he leaves Toulon and settles in Avignon.

Lina Bill presents himself as a pupil of Vincent Courdouan and Paul Saïn, with whom he worked in 1887.

1888 will be the year of his first participation in the Salon des Artistes Français, where he presents Le Rhône à Avignon. He was living in Avignon at the time, more precisely in the Monclar district. In 1891, he received an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français with Village de Gruissan.