Raymond Thibésart (1874-1968), The Botanical Garden of Funchal, Madeira, circa 1920 – 1930
Born into a wealthy family from the Champagne region who had settled in Enghien, near Paris, he met Émile Boggio there, a Venezuelan painter seventeen years his senior, who gave him his first lessons. This did not prevent the young painter from continuing his studies at the Lycée Rollin in Paris, then at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1894, and later at the Académie Julian. These two inseparable friends traveled together through Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Corsica, and Portugal, drawing inspiration from these places. Thibésart sublimated the light of a fleeting moment and immortalized a gentleness barely disturbed by the sounds of nature.
It was, in fact, in his depictions of flowering trees that this painter became known and appreciated. First working outdoors and then in his studio on the banks of the Seine, he subtly and sensitively captured the spring blossoms and the warm shadows of the southern light, so characteristic of the Mediterranean coast.
Regularly exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants, as well as in the prestigious Georges Petit, Knoedler, and Romanet galleries, he was frequently the subject of admiring reviews, such as the one published on November 25, 1913, in Le Figaro (Gallica):
Mr. Raymond Thibésart has brought together for this most interesting exhibition the picturesque sketches he collected during his recent travels to Lake Como, Genoa, Chamonix,” in Brittany, and even along the Marne River, in Champigny and Joinville. He is a painter deeply enamored with color, atmosphere, and sky: he knows how to represent things within their own unique ambiance, and it is fitting that art lovers give his work the attention it so richly deserves.
Our oil on canvas is part of Raymond Thibésart’s emblematic post-Impressionist oeuvre. It bears witness to his trip to Portugal, where he spent long hours in the Funchal Botanical Garden, capturing the vibrant nature he so loved. The painting, signed, is in perfect condition and sold with its frame.
