La Roche Laffitte

Botanical Studies, Watercolours on Silk on Handmade Paper, Set of Three Tulips.

A beautiful fresh and lively original French gouache and watercolour of a still-life of roses in a Provençal 'confit jarre'. Signed Jocelyn to the lower right. The work is currently ...

French Impressionist watercolour on paper view of a colourful tablescape still life by Henri Clamen. The painting is not signed but was acquired form the atelier of the artist with o...

Large, colourful, Mid Century French watercolour of a tablescape by Roger Decaux. Signed bottom left. Roger DECAUX was born in 1919 in Dombasle sur Meurthe in the Lorraine. He studied art in Paris with Gino Severini and Jan Brusselmans...

A watercolour and gouache on paper of pink chrysanthemums or oillets in a vase. The painting is monogram signed bottom right but as yet undeciphered. The painting is framed in a mode...

Botanical gouache on paper circa 1920 by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy. The work depicts a study of apples and pears. This work was executed by Dufy as a fabric design. Dimensio...

Botanical gouache on paper circa 1920 by French fauvist painter Raoul Dufy. The work flowers in red and blues with green foliage against a yellow and white stripped background. Dimensions: Framed: 25"x20" Unframed: 18"x13" Raoul Dufy was one of a family of nine children, including five sisters and a younger brother, Jean Dufy, also destined to become a painter. Their father was an accountant in the employ of a major company in Le Havre. The Dufy family was musically gifted: his father was an organist, as was his brother Léon, and his youngest brother Gaston was an accomplished flautist who later worked as a music critic in Paris. Raoul Dufy's studies were interrupted at the age of 14, when he had to contribute to the family income. He took a job with an importer of Brazilian coffee, but still found time from 1892 to attend evening courses in drawing and composition at the local college of fine arts under Charles Marie Lhullier, former teacher of Othon Friesz and Georges Braque. He spent his free time in museums, admiring the paintings of Eugène Boudin in Le Havre and The Justice of Trajan in Rouen. A municipal scholarship enabled him to leave for Paris in 1900, where he lodged initially with Othon Friesz. He was accepted by the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Léon Bonnat, whose innate conservatism prompted Dufy to remark later that it was 'good to be at the Beaux-Arts providing one knew one could leave'. And leave he did, four years later, embarking with friends and fellow students on the rounds of the major Paris galleries - Ambroise Vollard, Durand-Ruel, Eugène Blot and Berheim-Jeune. For Dufy and his contemporaries, Impressionism represented a rejection of sterile academism in favour of the open-air canvases of Manet, the light and bright colours of the Impressionists, and, beyond them, the daringly innovative work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, Seurat, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Dufy was an out-and-out individualist, however, and was not tempted to imitate any of these artists. He produced, between 1935 and 1937, Fée Electricité (Spirit of Electricity), the emblem for the French utilities company Electricité de France (EDF). Dufy visited the USA for the first time in 1937, as a member of the Carnegie Prize jury. In 1940, the outbreak of war (and his increasingly rheumatic condition) persuaded him to settle in Nice. When he eventually returned to Paris 10 years later, his rheumatism had become so debilitating that he immediately left for Boston to follow a course of pioneering anti-cortisone treatment. He continued working, however, spending time first in Harvard and then in New York City before moving to the drier climate of Tucson, Arizona. The cortisone treatment was by and large unsuccessful, although he did recover the use of his fingers. He returned to Paris in 1951 and decided to settle in Forcalquier, where the climate was more clement. Within a short time, however, he was wheelchair-bound. He died in Forcalquier in March 1953 and was buried in Cimiez. Between 1895 and 1898, Raoul Dufy painted watercolours of landscapes near his native Le Havre and around Honfleur and Falaise. By the turn of the century, however, he was already painting certain subjects that were to become hallmarks of his work - flag-decked Parisian cityscapes, Normandy beaches teeming with visitors, regattas and the like, including one of his better-known early works, Landing Stage at Ste-Adresse. By 1905-1906 Friesz, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Van Dongen and Rouault were described collectively as Fauves (the wild beasts). What they had in common was a desire to innovate, but they felt constrained nonetheless to meet formally to set out the guiding principles of what promised to be a new 'movement'. Dufy quickly established that those principles were acceptable; moreover, he was most impressed by one particular painting by Henri Matisse ( Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness) which, to Dufy, embodied both novelty and a sense of artistic freedom. Dufy promptly aligned himself with the Fauves. Together with Albert Marquet in particular, he spent his time travelling the Normandy coast and painting views similar...

The work of Linda Clerget is realized in an impressionist style à la gouache alla prima. The colors are broken and worked in the fresh. Linda Clerget is a French artist known intern...

Michel-Henry was born in Langres in 1928 and has shown strong passion for drawing since his childhood. Michel-Henry is acknowledged as an important painter in French contemporary art. From 1952 his work has periodically been singled out for France's highest prizes and awards. The French Government, the City of Paris , the Museum of Valence , Bogota and the Museum of Alencon are among the distinguished institutions who have acquired his work for their permanent collections. Born in Langres in 1928 the aspiring artist attended the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He later studied with Narbonne , Georg, Chapelain-Midy and Legueult. In 1957 he became a member of the House of Descartes in Amsterdam and the following year was named member of the Casa Velazquez in Madrid , honors which are exceptional for a young painter. He is a member of the Salon d'Automne as well as a member of its jury, he also exhibits in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon Comparisons, and the Salon Terres Latines. In 1976 he shared in the honor of presenting the Salon d'Automne exhibition in Japan . Michel-Henry blends delicate tones and strong and fascinating accents into his compositions of flower still life, landscapes and marines. An avid interest in nature is the predominant quality of his luminous works. As a French artist whose works are known internationally, Michel-Henry over a period of twenty eight years has earned the status of a goodwill ambassador in a universal world of cultural exchanges. For his dedication and unselfish contributions to art and artists from all lands he was honored by his country by being awarded the prestigious - la Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur - on January 1, 1981 by the French Minister of Culture Mr. Jean Philippe Lecat. Michel Henry exhibited at prestigious galleries in Paris (Avenue Matignon) and New York (Madison Avenue) alongside such artists as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Armand Guillaumin, Maurice Utrillo and Claude Venard. He is part of School of Paris artists that included Marcel Cosson, Jean Jansem, Leni-Dael, Raoul Dufy, Claude Salomon, Michel Kouliche...