Village au soleil, bord de rivière 1973

In this evocative 1973 composition titled Village au soleil, bord de rivière, celebrated French painter Bernard Buffet captures a rural landscape suspended between stillness and storm. Characteristic of Buffet’s expressive graphic language, the poster merges linear precision with brooding emotion, presenting a tranquil riverside village under a dramatically streaked sky.

A small house with a steep, warm brown roof sits at the center, nestled along the calm waters, surrounded by slender trees and docked boats. Beyond it, a tightly clustered village recedes into the distance, its rooftops glowing with an almost austere warmth under the filtered light. The vertical sweep of trees—Buffet’s signature angular forms—rise defiantly into a churning gray sky, creating a rhythm of tension and serenity.

Executed with stark brushwork and a melancholic palette of greens, ochres, and grays, this work exemplifies Buffet’s post-war modernist aesthetic, marked by solitude, rural nostalgia, and sharp contrasts. Rather than romanticizing the landscape, Buffet imbues it with psychological depth, as if the viewer is witnessing a moment before or after a storm, quiet yet charged with energy.

This poster is more than a picturesque view—it is a portrait of mood and memory, offering a timeless window into the poetic solitude of the French countryside.

Lithograph

Expressionism - France - Frédéric Birr

Printed by Draeger in Paris

Good condition