Emile Bellet (1941-2022) French, Lithograph. Depicts a woman in a red dress on a covered dock looking out at the sun-drenched water and a boat in the distance. Signature bottom right below image. Number 117/120. 

Overall Size: 34 x 29 in. 

Sight Size: 31 1/2 x 26 1/2 in. 

Emile Bellet was born in Provence, France in 1941. A self-taught artist, he began to paint at the age of five, and when he was twelve, he won first prize in a national art journal competition In 1960 he held his first solo exhibition, and his career finally began in earnest when he was noticed by Galerie Guigne in 1976. Bellet completed the stained glass windows of the church Notre Dame de Bon Voyage in 1978 in Port de Bouc, and was commissioned the following year by the Alpine Maritime Region to paint several works for the walls of their facilities. He enjoyed painting “en plein air” like the Impressionists, and felt most closely aligned with the work of the Fauves, frequently capturing the villages and scenery from his native France and the colors of the Mediterranean. His wife and daughter were his biggest inspirations, almost always the models for the mysterious female figures he incorporated into most of his pieces. In the early 2000s he achieved international recognition and representation through Park West Gallery, and began to hold exhibitions overseas in Japan, Senegal, Brazil, and America, with permanent collections on display throughout his native France. Bellet passed away of natural causes on July 1st, 2022, and since then his works have found their way into more and more private, public, and corporate collections.