1870s Round Ceiling Painting of the Allegory of Music

This beautiful boiserie panel depicting an allegory of Spring and the Arms of France was hand-painted in France, circa 1840. Boiserie is ornate wooden paneling that covered walls and ceilings of luxurious chateaus in France. The use of these panels became more prevalent at the end of the 17th century, before exploding in popularity during the 1700’s, thanks to multiple installations at the Palace of Versailles. Lengthy paintings such as this (ours is over 112 inches long) would often be placed above a doorway, forming a continuous theme with the rest of the room. The arrival of Spring is depicted by four winged cherubs frolicking among pink, white, and yellow flowers. None of the cherubs are clothed, although two of them are draped in colored textiles. The putto on the far left has a billowing peach colored material hanging from the left shoulder as he holds a sheer piece of fabric. The transparent veil stretches across most of the canvas, extending to the right hand of a female cherub wearing a jeweled tiara on the far right. On the same side of the canvas, but more medial, is another putto loosely draped in green fabric. To the left is the fourth cherub, a female with a laurel leaf tiara that is holding onto the edge of the Arms of France. A gold oval medallion, adorned with volute scrolls at the top and bottom, encircles a representation of the coat of arms of France from the Bourbon Restoration (1814/1815-1830). There is a large, curled leaf rising from the top volute with a husked border surrounding the light blue background with three gold fleur de lys. Our magnificent French painting gives off a warm and lively feel. Although it could still be used as part of a boiserie room...

A French Napoléon III period framed architectural oil on canvas panel from the mid 19th century, with Allegory of the Arts and rinceaux motifs. Cr...

Oil painting on canvas depicting the allegory of music, Italian school. Coeval frame to the painting.  

This French trumeau painting from the late 19th century features a beautifully executed painted scene on canvas, reminiscent of a technique situated between the grisaille or the verd...

Signed on the bottom right Henry Picou. Charming mythological scene representing a round of nymphs, symbol of fertility and benevolence, wearing crowns of flowers and dancing in the middle of a wheat field. They are accompanied by playful winged cupids flying around them and throwing flowers. Author of genre and portrait scenes, Henry Picou has mainly distinguished himself, in the neo-Greek movement of the second half of the 19th Century, in the representation of allegorical paintings thanks to his delicate and colorful touch. Born on July 27th, 1824 in Nantes and died on July 17th, 1895 in Paris, Henry-Pierre Picou is an history, portrait and genre scenes painter, who has distinguished himself in the Neo-greek movement. Entering at twelve years old in the workshop of the painter Paul Delaroche, he then follows Charles Gleyre’s teaching in the Ecole Royale des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In Paris, he becomes friend with young painters among which Jean-Léon Gérôme, Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Louis Hamon. This group, who is passionate about recent discoveries about Roman and Greek antiquity, starts exposing in the Salon in 1847, and Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting, le Combat de coqs, awarded with a gold medal, allows them to be noticed and devotes Gérôme as the leader of this new Neo-greek movement. This artistic movement quickly becomes fashionable, also influencing the decorative arts and the architecture. Henry Picou wins the second prize of Rome in 1853 for his painting Jésus chassant les marchands du Temple, preserved today in the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. When Neo-greek artists are not so popular anymore, Henry Picou devotes himself to a career as a portraitist and genre scene painter, and exposes to the Salon paintings...

1870s hand painted portrait on porcelain.