Lost Domaine or Le Grand Meaulnes

Lost Domaine

Lost Domaine or Lost Estate, oil on canvas, 72 inches by 36 inches My painting of Lost Domaine is for Alain-Fournier and his novel Le Grand Meaulnes.

Le Grand Meaulnes is the only novel by French author Alain-Fournier. Fifteen-year-old François Seurel narrates the story of his relationship with seventeen-year-old Augustin Meaulnes as Meaulnes searches for his lost love. Impulsive, reckless and heroic, Meaulnes embodies the romantic ideal, and the mysterious world between childhood and adulthood.

François, the narrator of the book, is the son of the director of the school in a small village in the Sologne,

After arriving in class, Augustin Meaulnes soon disappears. He returns from an escapade where he attended an incredible and magical costume party in a strange chateau.  There he met the girl of his dreams, Yvonne de Galais.

My painting illustrates Augustin Meaulnes and his struggle to understand that his experience, the Domain and Yvonne de Galais are one.

As a classic tale of lost love and the search for the unobtainable, it tells us that we should be empowered by life’s experiences and not spend our lives trying to relive them.