Manuel Robbe or A. Lafitte (1872-1936)

An Epiphany.
Or perhaps this is a slight exaggeration?


A.Lafitte, Coastal Scene. Aquatint ca. 1925, 70x50cm.
Original frame from the 1930's.

 Nevertheless - My Mother spent several years in France between WWI and II.
Among the pictures and other memorabilia that she brought home was this picture, signed by a certain A. Lafitte - probably with a pristine white frame when she bought it, now with a slight sense of age in the paper - and yet, still with brilliant colours and no foxing.
I have always liked this aquatint etching and many times speculated who this artist, A. Lafitte could be, but never found a chance to solve the riddle. Until now. I even remember that we had a smaller picture by the same artist, another couple of ships, but I must admit, that I have managed to lose it during my many moves.
Alphonse Lafitte apparently was a psudonym, under which the Belle Epoque artist Manuel Robbe began to work after 1920, until his death in 1936. He used it rather exclusively for his marine and Brittany paintings and aquatints, perhaps because he wanted to create a more commercial image than as expressed in his many well-known pictures of more or less dressed women - usually less!
he was well educated, specialising in etchings and aquatints and had learnt at an early stage how to master the printing in many colours from one etching.
How on earth would I have known that before the age of the Internet?
There is no doubt that this etching only survived because of my love of ships!

Oh, and value?
Probably not enormous, unfortunately, but other Robbe etchings of this size sell at auction for $500-$1500, so the small etching means a loss of $100-200.
In the grand scale of life's other losses it means nothing - except that the loss of art always is a sad thing.

Fishing Trawler, West Coast of Denmark (North Sea/ Vesterhavet)

Fishing trawler, Danish North Sea coast
Jorgen Faxholm Oil on board 2011

Painting after a photo from a trip along the west coast of Denmark many years ago.
The habit of pulling the small North Sea trawlers from Thorup, Loekken, Vorupoer and other Danish West Coast villages up on the beach is fast disappearing. This way of fishing is not economic any more. The good news is that modern trawlers are larger, more effective and can take a bigger load. The bad news is, that they slowly trawl the waters empty of fish.

In 20 years this painting will indicate how fishing was done in the past - the same way the Skagen-painters showed what fishermen looked like around 1910.
All gone!
The only structures remaining on the beach might be the many German bunkers from WWII - at least for a while, as they are slowly being washed into the sea as well.

Chateau Neuf (Var) Anno 1995

The ruined village Chateau Neuf -
Jorgen Faxholm: Oil on Canvass 2011, 50x40cm

Just north of Nice are the remains of a fortified village. It takes a cheek-biting drive along narrow serpentine roads through a rather barren landscape to get there, but that was the whole idea 500 years ago, when general access would have been nigh on impossible. It must have been a cold existence in the winter and a life without running water in the summer - but what don't humans do in order to stay alive? Anything would be preferable compared to a life as slaves in a North African hell-hole.
The name is as old as the village: Chateau Neuf!!
It was abandoned already in the 16th C. - an indication of it's general inhospitable location.
Today it is an enchanting place, mainly serving as a backdrop for the odd tourist's 'pique-nique'.



One of the ruined village towers.
Jorgen Faxholm: Oil on canvass 2011, 50x40cm.


Climbing the village is not without danger and it certainly demands firm boots on your feet. The towers and houses are slowly but surely crumbling away and nothing is done to preserve the site. On the top the remains of a stronghold can be found and every building on the slope appears to have been constructed with defense in mind. The whole area is covered in thick, prickly shrubs that eeke out a miserable and arid existence. The hill shows clear signs of terraces, where the inhabitants could grow a few vegetables or keep their cattle and sheep in times of attack.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the villagers in the neighbouring hamlets still claim ownership of Chateau Neuf properties; the French have the most strange and convoluted inheritance system on earth and people prefer to let their houses fall into disrepair rather than selling them to strangers.

I love the place, though - but eerie it is!

Tourtour, Provence (Var) 1994

Jorgen Faxholm: Oil on canvas,  50x60cm

Holiday Villa, Tourtour Sept. 1994



I remember the holiday as being cold at night, warm in the day - and Tourtour being a touristic village high in the clouds - and populated mainly by German and Dutch tourists, the 'Tabac obligatoire' and a restaurant catering more to Schweinshaxen and Uitsmijters than Bouillabaisse.
In other words: a global village already in 1994.
Once upon a time it was a little French village with typical Provence houses clinging precariously to the edge of nowhere.
Potected by the castle in the centre, the view from Tourtour towards the south remains breathtaking, though. The pirates of the 16th C would have had little more than a snowball's chance in a warm place to arrive unobserved.
Surprisingly, the public 'lavage' was still in use, taking its water from clear and utterly cold mountain streams.

This is the forecourt of the house we had rented and it was a wonderful, albeit very lonely, base for our excursions.
The Oleanders were in full bloom, displaying their blood-red flowers all around the house.
Behind us was a large meadow, that probably had been the feeding ground for a few cows belonging to the ruined farm a little higher up the hill.
This was the topic for another of my Tourtour paintings from 2010.

Jensine racing Bessie Ellen 2007

Jorgen Faxholm: Jensine and Bessie Ellen around Fyn Island 2007
Oil on board, 50x70cm

Jensine and Bessie Ellen
Jensine is Denmark's oldest wooden ship still sailing, a 1-master yacht (Jagt), built in Aalborg by J.W.Riis, 1852. She has since been faithfully restaured by a consortium in Haderslev, Denmark.

Bessie Ellen was designed and built by W.S. Kelly in 1904 in Plymouth to carry cod fish for the Newfoundland trade. In 1907 she was purchased by Captain J.S. Chichester to begin working as a general cargo ship in home waters. She is the last remaining West Country 2-master Trading Ketch (Galease).

Hulst roofscape 1976

Jorgen Faxholm: Hulst, roofs of modern dwellings
contrasting with the medieval Begijnhoof
and poplar trees on the old city rampart.

HULST, The Netherlands.
Oil on board, painted 2010 after a photo taken 1976.
For the art-critic(al) person:
The painting is divided in 3 horizontal layers:
1. Roofs, 2.Medieval building backed by trees and 3. Sky.
There are 2 clear diagonals going through the painting: from the white window in the gable to the right, via the small white structure on a roof to the main tower of the Begijnhof, leading the observer's eye to move back and forth from SE to NW. Next, the roof tiles on the foreground house attracts attention, leading the eye over the chimneys to the little white tower - and finally resting on the horizontal band of poplars.

Contrasting colours (ochre/umber of the bricks and roofs vs the green trees; and the yellow of the tower vs the blue sky).
The slightly muddled blue of the sky reflects a late summer's day with a colour toned down by the
industrial output found along the coast from Antwerp to Calais.
.

Samsø North coast 1995



Jorgen Faxholm: Samsø coastal landscape, Denmark 1995
Acrylic on board, 50x60cm



After a sketch and a photo during my holiday in 1995.
Painted 2010

 

Humlebæk Stejleplads, Coast of Øresund, Denmark



Jorgen Faxholm: coast of Øresund, oil on board 2010

 From a sketch made in 1995.
Island of Hven in the background.

Cherry trees in Slavsko,  Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains  

Jorgen Faxholm: Ukrainian farm drawing 2003

Jorgen Faxholm: Ukrainian farm, 2010, Oil on board