Marie Paul Henry de FABRY
 (Larnage, 1833 – Tain, 1927)

 Southern landscape
 Watercolor
 Signed lower left
 22 x 34.5 cm

 Few biographical elements have been found in the literature on this artist other than his civil status – born on August 6, 1833 in Larnage in the Drôme – and his various participations in provincial Salons such as in Lyon from 1879 to 1896 with multiple watercolors each year and in Bordeaux in 1885 again with a watercolor.

 From the obituary column for Tain-L'Hermitage published in La Croix de La Drôme on January 23, 1927, we learn that Paul de Fabry was president of the Société Régionale des Amis des Arts from 1913 until his death and spent almost his entire life in Tain.

 Here are some selected extracts from the glowing posthumous tribute paid by Mr. Beaume, vice-president of the Société Régionale des Amis des Arts, at the artist's burial, which provide us with valuable information about his personality:

 "Paul de Fabry, born in 1833, had shown, from his youth, a very pronounced talent for drawing. Later, he became fond of the watercolor process, then little known in France but which was undergoing an interesting development in England. With no other guide than a treatise translated from English, he began to paint, often in the company of this other artist, his great friend, Max de la Sizeranne, and no one can deny that he was able to achieve true mastery."

 "Mr. de Fabry had been and remained a true artist specializing in the art of watercolor. He had created a personal genre for himself that was very much appreciated."

 "But he was also served by a marvelous vision of the beauties of nature. No one better than he knew how to translate the infinite charm of a great morning sky, where everything is light and airy. His landscapes, with their impeccable design, great sobriety of lines, and perfect order, are airy and transparent, at once real and poetic, and attract the eye like a window opening onto a delightful viewpoint."

 Our drawing is the purest example of this.

 Paul de Fabry died suddenly in Tain on January 10, 1927 in his 94th year.