Catherine Jansens

Vanitas by Catherine Jansens (Born in 1949)

20th century

This captivating trompe-lœil painting showcases Jean Grimal’s extraordinary mastery of illusion. A vivid red cardinal, a black wooden flute, curling manuscripts and brittle music she...

Jean Grimal is a true 20th century discovery. This breathtaking piece is a gorgeous example of his mastery as an artist. He beautifully creates chiaroscuro in this painting. The way the light touches the edges of the Chinese bowl and the grapes is an example of his skill in representing light. Jean Grimal (1942-1998) was born in the town of Tulle, France in 1942. Jean’s family moved to Paris when he was 8 years of age. After receiving a classical French education with studies in Latin and Greek, Jean Grimal entered the University to receive his Baccalaureate. He then attended Claude Barnard School for three years, when he received his Art Degree.  Upon completion Grimal taught art for seven years.  As Grimal’s own interest in formal painting and art began to possess him, the artist’s destiny changed.  In 1967 Jean Grimal stepped aside from teaching and pursued a career in professional painting and working as an illustrator in advertising.  As an advertising illustrator, Grimal worked with Lise Goldfard for more than 25 years at Studio 44 where they collaborated with major and important accounts, such as: Air France, Christofle, Peugeot, Lacoste, to name a few. At the same time he began presenting his formal paintings to galleries in Paris and Cannes, France and in London and Windsor, England.  Much to his surprise, Grimal found that his paintings were sought after by major art galleries and collectors throughout Europe.  After a number of years of being an important and successful art illustrator for these major accounts, he found himself having to choose between the two.  Fortunately for collectors, he chose to dedicate his life to the classical style of painting.  Jean looked at the simplest things in life through a microscope, where he could take the simplest object and depict the age of the fruit or the leaf. Jean Grimal received great pleasure from his work and painted for over thirty years.  As his style matured and became ever more perfect Jean Grimal truly reached the pinnacle of his career.  The artist’s methods were particularly distinguished when measured against his peers.  Grimal’s painting skill was distinctive and exceptional. Jean Grimal was known for his realistic trompe l’oeil and still life paintings.  The artist would carefully arrange the objects to form a satisfying composition.  By painting every shadow, highlight, and reflection within each composition Grimal brought mundane subjects to life.  His tight rendering combined with his attention to light and detail allowed him to blur the lines between illusion and reality, truly making his works one of a kind.  Grimal’s trompe l’oeil paintings consist of intricate compositions of cards, envelopes, photographs, paper of different materials and weights, backs of canvases, images of other artists’ works, kitchen utensils, pistols, and more.  Grimal had a talent for mastering these illusions that deceive the eye in his trompe l’oeil paintings.    No matter what genre Grimal was painting, tight, unperceivable brushwork characterizes his work.  The artist painted every crease and crinkle, every shadow and highlight, every detail.  By doing so, he was able to capture each individual surface texture of the objects in his paintings.  Grimal was also fabulous at depicting light in his paintings- often contrasting strong lights with strong darks, creating chiaroscuro modeling.  His still life paintings are reminiscent of Dutch seventeenth century...

This painting is a perfect example of lyrical abstraction and a choice painting out of the best period of Vlerick's career. Pierre Vlerick’s work shows...

This painting is a perfect example of lyrical abstraction and a choice painting out of the best period of Vlerick's career. Ineffable, 1962 Oil on Masonite board 91,5 x 61,5 cm (without frame) 93 x 63 cm (framed) Signed and dated Top Right ‘P. Vlerick 1962’ with title, signature place and date at the back: Ineffable P. Vlerick Afsnee 1962 Pierre Vlerick’s work shows some resemblance to Willem de Kooning’s. While the Dutch American was famed for the wild manner in which he treated his canvas, Pierre Vlerick showed some more restraint, but making a painting was in any case a slow process of stopping and starting and revising. His exploration is meant to result in a correct proportion of colour fields and streaks, often applied layer upon layer. All his colors have a luminous intensity. It was mainly Bonnard’s colorful work that inspired Vlerick to compose his own singular range of colors of slightly tingling yellows, greens, oranges and bits of blue here and there. Abstraction is emphasized by his use of color. Colors not associated with objects from daily life often dominate the composition: purple, for instance. This is the basis for his continuing abstraction, ending up as color fields combined with organic elements depicted with the vaguest of contours. Though both artists create a very metropolitan, say even worldly art, their work evokes nature. De Kooning has been called a master of ‘abstract landscape’. The structure of Vlerick’s works, too, is very vegetable and organic. No wonder he referred to his paintings as his ‘gardens’. Neither artist allowed his garden to remain empty: de Kooning created a female figure looking like a cross between a floozy and the mother goddess. Vlerick imagined a woman who is enjoying her body. Vlerick’s approach to abstract art is the same as de Kooning’s; they refuse to paint in a figurative manner, yet at the same time do not wish to renounce referring to reality. De Kooning once put it very accurately during an interview when he conceded that painting the human figure any longer was absurd(in the post-war period), but also stated that it would be even more absurd not to do it. The only way out of this ambiguous dilemma is the deconstruction of the human figure. Not in order to reject it, but to show it in all its fragility. Pierre Vlerick’s exceptional artistic talents were already recognized while he was studying at the Ghent Academy (1940-1944) whereupon graduating he received a gold medal. In 1947-1948 Vlerick enrolls at the “la Grande Chaumière Academy”, a Parisian private academy which attracts lots of foreign artists thanks to the reputation of its most important teachers such as Maurice Denis (1870-1943). Denis was one of the founding fathers of “the Nabis” and is also considered to be the godfather of abstract art by many artists and art critics. Maurice Denis is famous for his quote: "Remember that a painting, before it is any kind of representation, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors in a certain collected order." At La Grande Chaumière, Vlerick is challenged to develop a pictorial language of his own. Vlerick develops a way to translate the observed reality into visions of color and form, which can be situated somewhere on the axis between the figurative and the abstract. Reality is decomposed and reconstructed into a complete new representation. After a trip to Spain in 1955 the painter evolves towards the use of brighter colors. At the Brussels World Exhibition of 1958 (Expo 58) Vlerick is for the first time confronted with real works of 17 American artists (William Baziotes, James Brooks, Sam Francis, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Clyfford Still, Bradley Walker...

Antique Vanitas Oil Painting, Antique Memento Mori Oil Painting, Antique Skull Oil Painting, Gothic Antique Painting, 19th Century Vanitas Still Life Oil Painting. Early 19th Century French Vanitas Oil Painting on Canvas. The Old Master Vanitas Still Life Painting depicts a skull, book and rosary. Oil on canvas, lined. Unsigned. In gold gilt period frame. Very well painted, attractive & highly decorative Vanitas skull...

HANS WITHOOS (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Vanitas with Seneca, 2016 60 x 40 inches - Edition of 9 Fine art inkjet print on special paper rag, on Dibond with a certified Liquid Gloss...

Vanitas Oil Painting on Linen Canvas Still Life In Stock Born in Den Helder, The Netherlands in 1976. Victor Muller is a young artist with a considerable and amazing oeuvre. He crea...

Fine art inkjet print on special paper rag Ask us for framing options Hans Withoos career spans more than twenty years worldwide. After graduating from the Art Academy. He specializ...