R. Tourte
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This is Roger Tourte (1903–1972), a French painter and architect from the Champagne region who trained in painting and architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Roger Tourte first visited Greece in the 1920's and he finally settled in Athens, shortly before the beginning of World War II. Roger Tourte belongs to that distinguished band of talented and adventurous spirits known as the Early Travellers, and landscape and architecture were his subjects; he had a masterly command of his medium, water colour and tempera, and was an extraordinarily observant painter. He became particularly associated with the light and scenery of the Aegean, producing an extensive body of gouaches and watercolors depicting the whitewashed churches, harbors, and hillside villages of the Cyclades and other Greek islands.
Tourte's Greek subjects, especially views of Mykonos, Santorini, and Nafplio, remain his most sought-after works, typically signed and inscribed with the location in pencil at the lower corner. He is remembered as an architect, painter and watercolorist originally from the Champagne region who died in Athens. His work has since been the subject of retrospective exhibitions in Greece, including a show devoted to his Cycladic paintings at the Thera Foundation in Santorini, and examples of his paintings, gouaches, and woodcuts continue to appear at auction houses in Europe and the United States, appealing to collectors of mid-century travel and topographical art as well as those with a particular interest in depictions of Greece.
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