This work will be included in the forthcoming André Brasilier catalogue raisonné being prepared by Alexis Brasilier.

Cavalcade camarguaise presents on an impressive scale one of André Brasilier’s most enduring subjects: a group of riders on horses gallop through the surf on a deserted beach in the southern French region of Camargue. The region is known for its eponymous horse breed, the white Camarguais. These relatively small horses were of special interest to the artist, and are generally accepted to be one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world.

The horse is the most prominent subjects of Brasilier’s art, as the artist described in an interview, “As for the horse, I really like this animal, as much for its beauty as for the harmony that it has with nature… I love life, and horses, with their forms and their ardour, delight and intrigue me” (Interview with André Brasilier, www.brasilier.fr, September 2014).

In the present work, the sky, sea and surf form a dream-like backdrop to the charging cavaliers. Brasilier has handled the subject in his distinctive, graphic style in which beneath a sweeping sky the horses are rendered with quick gestural strokes evoking movement through the sea spray. The artist’s brushwork alternates between a gestural approach consisting of broadly applied strokes of paint, and an almost pointillist manner in the rendering of light reflecting on water. Through his rich use of colour, Brasilier transforms nature into an enchanting setting. Although naturalistic Cavalcade camarguaise evokes an imaginary, mythical world that is characterized by a sense of awe for nature and an innate fascination with the iconic image of the horse and rider.

Brasilier showed his artistic talent at a young age and attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of twenty. His father Jacque Brasilier, a painter himself, believed that the purpose of art was to convey spirituality, which is shown in André Brasilier’s work. Describing Brasilier’s artistic endeavour, Roger Bouillot remarks: ‘His [Brasilier’s life] has been the textbook life of a painter, a life devoted heart and soul to painting, and enduringly underpinned by the intensity of a message of love sent forth by an oeuvre that radiates beauty.’ (L. Harambourg & R. Bouillot, André Brasilier, Monograph, Lausanne, 2002, p. 288.)


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