'Boy with Sea Urchins' by Pierre Fournel (1954)

'Boy with Sea Urchins', oil on canvas, by Pierre Fournel (1954). 

About the Artist: Pierre Fournel (b. 1924). Born in Rodez, in the South of France, in a family of craftsmen embroiderers, Pierre Fournel started drawing early on in his childhood. After studying at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was appointed professor of art in Montpellier in 1950. His enduring works depicted the villages and landscapes to which he was attached. His later art, starting from the 1970s, saw the introduction of external elements such as crumpled paper, sand and earth seeking to integrate those materials to obtain the impression of timeless erosion; perhaps a statement on the endurance of nature over the fleeting passage of human existence on earth.