Robert Fonta (1922-1976) - Village en Espagne avec bodega (Vendu sans prix de réserve)

We present a gouache on paper depicting a Mediterranean village with a bodega and figures by Robert Jean Fontaine, known as Robert Fonta.

The scene shows a village square lined with whitewashed houses, with a bodega, locals seated at tables, and two female figures at the center, against a backdrop of hills, almost certainly in Spain.

Title: Mediterranean Village with Bodega

Medium: Gouache or oil on paper

Artist: Robert Fonta (Robert Jean Fontaine, 1922–1976)

Overall dimensions: 46 × 61 cm

Condition: Good.

Robert Fonta (Robert Jean Fontaine, 1922–1976) was a self-taught French painter and printmaker originally from Lorient. His turbulent youth took him to the Belle-Île-en-Mer juvenile penal colony, after which he was deported to Germany for forced labor under the STO during the Second World War. After the Liberation, he settled in Paris and joined the artistic bohemian scene of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he encountered Bernard Buffet, Jacques Prévert, and leading figures of the Latin Quarter literary scene. His unconventional life informed an uncompromising body of work, which ranged from the harshness of his prison memories to escapist themes in series devoted to the circus, childhood, and Spanish landscapes. Despite fragile health that brought his career to a premature end in Saint-Cloud, his work is now held in major institutional collections, notably the Musée national d’art moderne (Centre Pompidou), the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.