Gajac museum in Villeneuve-sur-Lot: thanks to a legacy, Barlangue finds the edges of the lot<

Ida Karskaya, Naja Mehadji and Gabriel Barlangue have one thing in common: they are exhibited on the picture rails of the Gajac museum.For the first two artists the gift they made to the Gajac museum follows exhibitions offered in the "world before".For the third the work given in June completes an already rich background of an unclassifiable artist because he left a multiple work, touching on many artistic techniques: painting of course but also engraving (chisel, waters-strong, etc.) and even engraving postage stamps.Born in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, in 1874, Gabriel Barlangue lived a large part of his life in the Paris region, in Charenton-le-Pont before finding Lot-et-Garonne, Penne-d'Agenais, for the lastdays of his life.He died in 1955 at the age of 82.Less known than other artists from here, it still deserves to be discovered.This is what the Gajac museum did by offering an exhibition around the Barlangue fund at the end of the year.You can find, again, on the Facebook page of the Gajac museum a trace of this exhibition.

Postage stamps

Charles-Gabriel Barlangue was a laureate of the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse.He went to Paris in 1893 where he was first received on 550 competitors and joined the National School of Fine Arts where he acquired his know-how with his masters, the painters Jean-Paul Laurens or Benjamin Constant.He trained in engraving with master engravers, Jean Patricot (chisel engraver and lithographer), Henri-Émile Lefort (etching engraver) and especially Antonin Delzers (chisel engraver and water-strong).Barlangue regularly participates in the Society of the Society of French Artists from 1900 where he exhibited paintings, engravings and drawings, landscapes, portraits as well as scenes from daily life or religious scenes.He received several awards from 1902, the silver medal in 1924, and two years later, the gold medal.He was a member of the jury in 1927.The other aspect of Barlangue's work is the engraving for philately.He is a master in the matter, Antonin Delzès who introduces him into the postal competition industry.He made his first stamp, "Jeanne d'Arc", in 1928.And he engraved from 1937 to 1953 31 French stamps and 27Mambette for the colonies and some foreign countries.

"Serenity"

Most of the parts in deposit at the Gajac museum concern precisely the engraved work of the artist.One of the most remarkable paintings on the back barlangue "Kimono girl" offered to the city by the painter's own daughter, was until now the oil on canvas most representative of the talent of this child of Villeneuve.And thanks to Robert Straus, "Serenity" demonstrates the multitude of interests of an artist who is also found inside the Sainte-Catherine church.In the 1930s, responding to a request from Ms. Georges Leygues and the Archpriest François Descuns, Barlangue produced the paintings of the cul-de-four, the vault of the apse.Robert Straus of American nationality has probably never set foot in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.But he owned this "serenity" painting in his Paris apartment, 2 meters by 2.50 meters that he did not want to take home in the USA at the time of the time of the move.By a competition of happy circumstances, he donated this work to the city of Villeneuve.And this is how "serenity" was the highlight of this exhibition proposed in 2020 and which did not have the popular success it deserved because of the pandemic of Covid 19.And as the work is gigantic, it cannot, either, be exposed in the permanent exhibition halls of Gajac.But we can trust the imagination of the Conservatives of the Villeneuvois museum to show off the works of an engaging artist.