Stephane Cara

About the Painting

This large oil on canvas depicts a twilight view of a village with a stream in winter, capturing the quiet atmosphere of rural France through simplified forms and harmonious color planes. The composition demonstrates Cara's characteristic approach of reducing the motif to essential elements, achieving a synthesis where drawing and color work in perfect balance. The winter scene, rendered in muted tones with careful attention to light, exemplifies his post-impressionist sensibility and personal vision.

Cara's work resists easy categorization. Working in solitude for many years, he developed a distinctive style free from foreign influence, where each subject called for its own means of expression. This diversity and constant renewal became hallmarks of his artistic practice, as he simplified motifs into perfectly ordered indications of colored planes.

About the Artist

Stéphane Gilbert Fernand Caracotchian, known as Stéphane Cara (1901-1962), was a French post-impressionist painter. Born in Châtenois, Alsace, on July 3, 1901, to an Armenian father and French mother, he was the son of a prestigious doctor. His family moved to Paris in 1919, where Cara worked for many years as a wine merchant and agent for the Société Anonyme fluviale Trans-Cam in Bordeaux before dedicating himself fully to painting.

Initially self-taught with personal research free from outside influence, Cara later trained with Armand Drouant (1898-1978) and André Lhote (1885-1962) in Paris. His artistic career gained recognition through numerous exhibitions and awards. In 1944, he was selected at the Salon des provinces françaises in Bordeaux and became finalist for Guyenne at the Musée Galliéra, Paris. He won the Second Liburnia Prize in 1944 and the First Liburnia Prize in 1945.

From 1946, Cara exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants bordelais, and from 1957 showed annually at the Salon de l'Art Libre in Paris. In 1959, he won the Second Cézanne Prize at the "Trois prix Cézanne" competition in Cannes, followed by the Deauville International Grand Prix in 1960. That same year, he executed stained glass windows for the altar of the Virgin at Église Sainte-Hélène in Nice.

Cara authored "Painting in a Nutshell: or How to Judge a Painting" (1959). After traveling extensively, he settled in Nice in 1955, where he died on May 16, 1962, at age 60. His sister Anita was the world's first woman oceanographer.

Technical Details

Artist: Stéphane Cara (1901-1962)
Signed: Lower right corner
Medium: Oil on canvas
Condition: Very good condition
Dimensions: 92 x 74 cm / 36¼ x 29 in
Frame: Unframed
Origin: France

A contemplative winter landscape by this accomplished French post-impressionist. References: Archives de France.