Landscape with a lake was executed by famous French painter René Charles Edmond His (1 February 1877 – 1960), who signed his paintings René His or E. René-His. For other works by him see our last 3 images . He was a formally trained French painter known for landscapes, especially of rivers, and for Orientalist scenes inspired by travel in Algeria.Coming of age and achieving early success at the end of the 1800s, His carried into the twentieth century the rigorous Academic standards and pre-Impressionist realism of earlier French artists like Jean-Leon Gerome. After the large virtuoso paintings that launched his career, he settled into a steady production of riverine landscapes of more conventional dimensions with exquisite colors and illusionistic depictions of light on still water. He exhibited in the Paris Salon virtually every year of his long career, and his paintings found collectors throughout his lifetime and beyond, especially in France and Great Britain, less so in the United States.

His was born in the small town of Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in 1877. Little is known about his private life. He was taught by a distinguished set of teachers including Jules Lefebvre, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Léon Tanzi. The most important influence on his work was Henri Biva, whose meticulous attention to detail and feeling for nature inspired His to strive for perfection in his depictions of river and woodland scenes.

In 1898, His won the Prix Brizard of 3000 francs awarded annually by the Academie des Beaux-Arts to a landscape artist age 28 or younger (His was 21), for his painting En Aiglard, which also received an Honorable Mention at the Paris Salon of 1898.

Literature: E. Benezit " Dictionary of painters, sculptors, decorators and etchers"(in French), Paris, 1999, ThB XVII, 1924, 149 :

Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas. Original salon frame.

Measurements: unframed w 31 7/8” x h 23 2/3” (81 X 60 cm); framed w 35 3/4" x h 28” (91 x 71 cm)

Condition: in very good condition.