Gaston BALANDE (1880-1971). Breton landscape with a lighthouse. Oil on canvas signed lower right (small pinholes in the corners). Height : 54 cm 54 cm - Width : 73 cm During the Universal Exhibition of 1900, Gaston Balande met Henri-Joseph Harpignies who encouraged him to enter the National School of Decorative Arts. In 1905, the Academy of Fine Arts salutes his work Quai d'Orsay in winter by awarding him a prize. After a stopover in Étaples where he met Le Sidaner, he travelled around Europe, studying the Flemish primitives before discovering the charm of the Italians. The years between the wars were those of consecration for the painter who established his rich and vibrant style. The State bought his famous painting Camping. In the years that followed, he painted a View of Etretat for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and brilliantly illustrated, after the war, The Liberation of La Rochelle.