Louis Labro-Font was born in Paris in 1881 and died in Valréas (Vaucluse) in 1952. Trained as an architect and believed to have studied in Camille Pissarro’s studio, he was a pupil of Henri Deglane (1855–1931), winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1881 and head of the architecture studio at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1890. In April 1917, the Gazette Deglane, written by Deglane’s students, noted that Louis resided in the Paris suburbs, at 40 rue de Sannois in Ermont. His name appears alongside that of Henri Bolloré, who would remain a lifelong friend.


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Vernon (Eure), 1928
Oil on plywood panel, stamped signature lower left
50 x 65 cm (part of a lot)


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), 1928
Oil on plywood panel, stamped signature lower left
50 x 65 cm (part of a lot)

In 1938, at the Carpentras Museum—then under the direction of Robert Caillet—Labro-Font exhibited landscapes of the Vaucluse, the Ventoux, and the Drôme—his favored lands, to which he was connected by family—alongside sculptures by Jean-Pierre Gras (1879–1964), son of the félibre Félix Gras (1844–1901). The exhibition catalogues were prefaced by Jean Giono, who described himself on these lands as wrapped “in a magical wool of colors,” and by Frédéric Mistral, nephew and namesake of the renowned French writer and lexicographer who wrote in Provençal Occitan. Les tablettes d’Avignon et de Provence, in its May 21, 1939 issue, enthusiastically praised the exhibition, declaring: “The canvases by Mr. Labro-Font—Valréas, Taulignan, and Almond Trees at Noveysan—are beautiful compositions, where clarity, delicacy of drawing, and simplicity prevail.” Three years later, a lengthy article published on June 1, 1942, in La Croix Magazine, recounts a critic’s visit to Valréas: “Labro-Font, a painter? What a narrow label (forgive me if this offends him). Labro-Font is more than a painter, more than an ‘artist-painter’—he is a poet. And perhaps even more: a musician. Silent music? Perhaps! If the rich Greco-Latin heritage of this land is reflected in his canvases, with its light—its many lights—Labro-Font goes beyond landscape: he sees and, more importantly, feels beyond. A symphony of colors, a melody of lines. But that, too, fails to capture it. Let us try to be more precise: tonal harmonies, balanced accords. No excess, not even dissonance in the usual sense. Tones and relationships of light—this may be the finest feature of Labro-Font’s work. And through the layering of harmonies, beyond their visible reality, shines all the life of this Haut Comtat region—partly Dauphinois—its past and even its future. The soul! And the music that sings. But we have written too much already. Just as music cannot truly be translated into words, neither can Labro-Font’s painting be analyzed or explained. It must be seen and felt. One must hear the harmonies. Then the heart beats to the rhythm of the canvas’s vibrations, reaching a sense of fullness. A fullness now reserved for a select few of the present—but which the future will one day bring to ‘the many.’”


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Valréas (Vaucluse), former Grillon Bridge, 1928
Oil on cardboard, signed lower right
38 x 46 cm (part of a lot)


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Valréas (Vaucluse), August 4 th Festival, 1931
Oil on plywood panel, signed lower left
38 x 46 cm (part of a lot)

Le Carnet du Jour in Figaro, dated August 16, 1952, announced the death of Louis Labro-Font in the following terms: "Certified architect (D.P.L.G.), artist-painter, piously passed away on July 21, at the age of 71, in Valréas (Vaucluse). From Mme Labro-Font, the Delhaye, Tiers, and Font families, and his dear friends Bolloré, architect D.P.L.G., Dô, Aubert, and Pagnol."
Although Labro-Font remained deeply attached to his native Vaucluse, he was equally steadfast in friendship. From the post-war period through the mid-1950s, he gathered around him in Valréas a select circle of acquaintances—a “privileged cenacle, a sort of salon for the arts and letters”—where the local elite could be found. Among them was “a surgeon practicing in the region whose specialty was playing Chopin divinely on the piano,” and the then-director of the Villa Medici, Joseph Trinquet (Transversalités, Revue de l’Institut catholique de Paris, January 1, 2003, p. 93).


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Southern Landscape with Church
Oil on cardboard, signed lower left
38 x 46 cm (part of a lot)


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Condorcet (Drôme), 1927
Oil on cardboard, stamped signature lower left
37 x 52 cm (part of a lot)

The studio of Louis Labro-Font was dispersed by Maître Blache at the Hôtel Rameau (Versailles) on October 8, 1972, February 24, 1974, and February 9, 1975.
A trilingual monograph (French, English, and Chinese), co-authored by William Ward, Gerald Shurr, and Claudine Danilo, was published in 1989 by Ward Editions.


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Cassis, 1929
Oil on plywood panel, signed lower right
50 x 65 cm (part of a lot)


Louis Labro-Font (1881-1952)
Toulon, Fort Saint-Louis, 1929
Oil on plywood panel, signed lower right
50 x 65 cm (part of a lot)

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