Framed Oil, Saint-Maximin- Route de Seillan by Daniel Ferrara (1906-1990)

Daniel FERRARA (1906–1990)

Saint-Maximin – Route de Seillan

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left

Canvas - 38 x 55 cm

Framed - 45 cm x 61 cm

Daniel Ferrara was a French naïve painter. He was one of the artists featured in “Voyage aux pays des peintres naïfs” by Jean-Marie Drot, a film about naïve painting.

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The painting shows a view near Saint-Maximin in Provence. A straight road runs from the foreground towards a cluster of red-roofed houses. On either side are fields, orchards and dark rows of trees. Behind them, hills rise in layers to a distant mountain ridge with snow on its peaks, and small villages sit high on the slopes. In the lower left, a lone figure walks with a dog.

Ferrara painted with the clarity and patience typical of naïve art. He used flat bands of colour, gave careful attention to detail, and laid out the landscape in clear, ordered planes. The result is calm and almost dreamlike, more a portrait of a place than a record of it.