From Spain to Virginia The Life and Times of Pierre Daura - Catalog - Page 31
Landscapes of France and Virginia:
Views of the World
Most views of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in the permanent
collection of the Taubman Museum of Art date from
the years after the Second World War, a time when the
Daura family used their French country home largely as
a summer retreat. In these works, the earthy tans of the
stone-and-mortar edifices and burnt ochres of the ceramictiled roofs are punctuated by outcroppings of mossy-green
vegetation. The cobalt blues and ash grays of turbulent
skies occasionally lighten to the brilliant azure or saturated
turquoise of a sunlit southern France. The interlocking
pattern of rectilinear buildings, though interspersed with
more gestural and brushy passages of plant life, capture a
sense of penetrating sunlight reflected off ancient weathered
surfaces and time-worn fortifications. These exterior walls
and angular rooftops intermingle to create faceted and
layered compositions that are among the most Cubistinspired images of Daura’s career. With the village’s narrow
winding streets climbing a steep rock face looming over the
29
