Léon Frédéric (1856–1940) The Tomb of the Giant circa 1910 Oil on panel signed

Léon Frédéric (Brussels, 1856 – Schaerbeek, 1940) The Tomb of the Giant, circa 1910. Signed at the bottom right. Certificate from Georges Frédéric, the artist's son, on the back of the panel. Oil on wood panel. 29.5 × 44 cm. 40.5 × 55 cm (framed) The Tomb of the Giant is a hill formed by a meander of the Semois River in Belgium, in the municipality of Bouillon (Luxembourg province). Léon Frédéric chose a characteristic viewpoint for his style: a high horizon pushing the sky into the upper third of the composition, allowing all its strength to the mass of vegetation and earth that dominates the gaze. This small format, with a direct and sensitive execution, belongs to the intimate vein that runs parallel to his symbolist work: that of a painter contemplating nature with a collected attention, close to the naturalist tradition of Jules Bastien-Lepage, whose work he discovered at the Brussels Salon in 1882. A student of Jean-François Portaels and then a free boarder in Italy (1878-1879), Léon Frédéric established himself as early as 1883 with his triptych The Chalk Merchants, combining modernity with references to the Flemish primitives. He became one of the major figures of Belgian Symbolism, alongside Constantin Meunier and Eugène Laermans. His large triptych The Ages of the Worker is housed in the Musée d'Orsay; his works are also featured in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On 24 April 1929, King Albert I granted him the title of baron, alongside James Ensor.