Fin de journee – Pasajes – Basque Country
by Georges Masson

Georges Masson was a french painter who was a dominant force in Basque painting in the early 20th century. He painted around Saint-Jean-De-Luz and Pasajes in the Basque region of Southern France and Northern Spain. Hhe was a prominent member of the Groupe des Neufs.

Composed of Charles Colin, René Choquet, Pierre Labrouche, Henri Godbarge, Georges Masson, Perico Ribera, Raymond Virac, Ramiro Arrue, Jean-Gabriel Domergue then Georges Bergès, the group was made up of local Basque artists (Masson, Labrouche, Colin) or Spanish (Arrue) than others from various regions (Paris, Douai for Choquet, Madrid for Ribera etc). For the latter, their marriage or their adoption of heart will establish roots in the Basque Country (Godbarge and Ribera die in Saint Jean de Luz for example).

The Gazette of Biarritz-Bayonne and of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, echoes in its edition of July 17, 1923, under the pen of Léon Sylvain, the common love which animates these painters: "All these painters in love with the beautiful Basque Country to the point of settling there forever, commune in a common admiration: They all love it with an equal love, but they see it and each other, from different angles. And they express it in different ways with their own ways, with their personality, their temperament."