Alexandre Louis Jacob

French, (1876-1972)

Alexandre Louis Jacob is best known for his atmospheric and luminous landscapes. He gained his rare understanding and love for nature through studied inspection, transferring his observations skillfully on to canvas. His masterful evocation of light, atmosphere, colour and sense of place are remarkable, and have a true ability to transport the viewer to the very banks of the River Seine and River Marne where Jacob would patiently wait, paintbrush poised to capture his unique visions of the French countryside.

Throughout his career, it was the endless skies of the French landscape that appealed to Jacob. The horizon sits in the lower third of his compositions, with the focus on fleeting clouds above, fringed with luminous light. The vast open skies create a sense of calm and contemplation, punctuated by elongated poplar trees that rise from below. Jacob was a master at capturing the French landscape as it subtly changed between the seasons. In autumn, his paintings contain a golden aura, in winter, a soft creamy light diffuses across the landscape with hues of pinks and blues reflected in snow on the river banks and his depictions of springtime resonate with the crisp morning light. Jacob preferred to paint in the quiet moments after a storm had passed, and each of his landscapes have a unique atmosphere of calm and tranquility, achieved by the still watery reflections in the foreground.

Herbert Fuller, of Gladwell & Company, London, first came across Jacob’s work in the Paris Salon after the Second World War, and it was at this point that Jacob’s work began to attract the international clientele of this historic art gallery in the City of London. Initially Jacob was represented by Galerie Haussmann in Paris, but as his popularity grew, Gladwell & Company acquired work directly from the artist from the early 1960’s until Jacob’s death in 1972.

In recent years, Gladwell & Patterson have had the good fortune to collect some unique drawings by Jacob which the artist would send to his close friends at Christmas and New Year. They reveal the artists direct observation of nature, sketching out his compositions with brown and black pencil. Jacob heightened these drawings with white chalk, picking out a smooth reflection upon the surface of water or the glowing clouds in an endless sky. These sepia toned landscape sketches, like Jacob’s exquisite oil paintings, have a unique atmosphere of calm and tranquility, achieved by the still watery reflections in the foreground.

Since Jacob’s death, three generations of the Fuller family of Gladwell & Patterson have continued to place Jacob’s illuminating oil paintings in illustrious private collections worldwide. In recent years, Jacob’s paintings have risen in popularity. Gladwell & Patterson is currently preparing a Catalogue Raisonné of his work.

Éclaircie sur le Marais, Environs d’Amiens

Painted in 1920

Oil on Canvas

46 x 56 cms / 18” x 22”

Provenance

Private French Collection.

Leighton Fine Art, UK.

Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2021.

Étude Temps Gris, Seine-et-Marne

Oil on Canvas

31 x 24 cms / 12½" x 9½"

Alexandre Louis Jacob

French, (1876-1972)

Provenance

Private Collection, UK.

Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2020.

Autumn

Oil on Canvas

36 x 44.5 cms / 14¼" x 17½"

Provenance

Galerie Hausmann, Paris.

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal, Canada; acquired in 1951.

Private Collection; acquired from the above on 7 March 1955.

Private Collection, New York State, USA.

Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2022.

Oil on Canvas

46 x 55 cms / 18" x 21¾"

Provenance

Private Collection, France.

Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired in 2022. Exhibited Paris Salon, after 1937.

Vieux Moulin, Temps Nuageux, Seine-et-Marne

Oil on Board

38.5 x 41.5 cms / 15¼" x 16¼"

Provenance

Galerie de Rohan, Paris. Gladwell & Co., London; acquired from the above in March 2002. Private Collection, UK; acquired from the above in August 2002.

Winter Evening

Oil on Panel 36 x 44.5 cms / 14¼" x 17½"

Provenance

European Art Imports, New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr and Mrs Sanford, USA; acquired from the above between 1975-1977, and thence by descent.

Gladwell & Patterson, London); acquired from the above in 2022.

A Tranquil Morning

Oil on Panel 27 x 23 cms / 10" x 9"

Provenance

Private Collection, UK. Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2020.

French, (1876-1972)

Côte Rocheuse

Oil on Canvas 66 x 81 cms / 26" x 32"