1890s Still-life Paintings

Signed oil on board interior by French Les Nabis painter Edouard Vuillard. The work depicts a room with a large window, outside of which are bare trees. Inside the room are three chairs and a patterned rug on the floor. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 20"x13" Unframed: 13"x6" Provenance: Prince Antoine Bibesco (1878-1951) - Special Envoy of Romania to the United States Piasa Encheres - Paris Lot no. 88 - 8th April 2005 - Sold EUR 118,000 hammer price Acquired at the above by Thomas Gibson Fine Art - London Acquired by the previous owner from Thomas Gibson Fine Art - TEFAF Maastricht November 2005 Literature: This work is included in the catalogue rasionne of the work of Edouard Vuillard under Ref Volume II No. 172 - illustrated and described Access to the raisonne online can be found at the Wildenstein Plattner Institute website. The work is described as being executed in the period 1899 to 1904 by Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval Édouard Vuillard attended the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, where he made friends with Maurice Denis, Lugné-Poe, and Ker-Xavier Roussel, later his brother-in-law. He studied in Maillart’s studio; for six weeks came under the tutelage of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and later under William Bouguereau and Robert at the Académie Julian, where he became closely linked with the Nabis group (from the Hebrew word for ‘prophet’). He met Marcel Proust in 1902. From 1908, he taught at the Académie Ranson. In 1937, he was elected member of the Institute. At first, Édouard Vuillard painted small subjects, disciplined and proficient, qualities for which the prestigious École Française was famous. His earliest still-lifes (1888) are astonishing in their decisiveness and subtlety. His empathy for the object had already compelled him to soften its appearance; the object, which, by virtue of its bright or glossy presence, remained the nonego and the ‘thing represented’ for so many others. ‘Intimacy’ developed immediately between the painter and this modest environment; inhabiting it every day enabled him to celebrate its splendour, and it was to remain his favourite environment. But he was already alternating between small portraits and still-lifes, which gained recognition because of their natural qualities and dignity of tone: a rare combination in a beginner. About 1890, influenced indirectly by Paul Gauguin, all the certainties which the self-styled Nabis painters had contented themselves with suddenly collapsed. Everything was called into question again: both the linear layout of the picture and its colour scheme; the choice of subject and its material aspect; its manufacture and its purpose. Vuillard’s paintings at that time show surprising, bold innovations and an arbitrary power, which one would expect 15 or 20 years later at the height of the Fauvist period. The preoccupation with an internal geometry set them apart from earlier studies. From then on, the paintings were based on forms, lines, and colours. Vuillard made concessions. He produced a portrait or interior with its furniture and its wallpapers, in which the family inhabiting it, evolves. Treated with flat areas of colour and solid shades of ochres, reds, blues, and saffron yellow, without modulation, they seem to prefigure certain paintings by Henri Matisse and Roger de La Fresnaye. In 1891, Édouard Vuillard painted an Elegant Lady, a silhouette seen from the back; a long vertical shape starting from the hair decorated with brown feathers; there is a kind of pink cloak, the tight and never-ending black skirt, erect in front of a half-open, bright orange door in a green wall, from where the light of another vertical shape emerges, which is bright yellow, and is reflected in red on the parquet at the feet of the elegant lady. This painting meets his concerns about the actual moment of creating ‘harmonies corresponding to our feeling’, and by virtue of its almost geometric structure, its drawing entirely free of detail, its light effects and colour harmonies, very much prefigures aspects of the future Abstraction movement and is oddly reminiscent of the final period of Nicolas de Staël. All too often, Édouard Vuillard is only admired in his role as the harmonist, the serene contemplator who combines an exquisite sense of nuance, rhythms, and values with the most acute observation. These singular investigations, these three-dimensional meditations including a table, a folding metal cot...

A Branch with Apples, watercolor and gouache on paper by Swedish artist Otto Strandman (1871–1960). The composition features a delicately rendered branch with green and reddish apple...

MARTIN Jacques (1844-1919) Lady With Bunch of Flowers Oil on canvas signed up right Framed by Gault (Paris) Dim canvas : 74 X 59 cm Dim frame : 97 X 82 cm MARTIN Jacques (1844-1919) French painter 19th-20th century Born in 1844 in Villeurbanne. Dead the 13th of November 1919 in Lyon Postimpressionist Painter of genre, still-lives, flowers. Exhibitions : Lyon Salon from 1881 and Paris Indépendants Salon. Enviable standing in the Lyon's school. Museums : Paris Luxembourg...

1-4064 Oil on canvas applied to board of a vintage French farmhouse illegibaly signed lower left set in a hand carved gilt wood frame Image size 20x16"

This spirited late 19th-century oil painting by French artist André Perrachon (1827-1909) depicts a still life with an abundance of yellow and pink roses. Perrachon was a prominent a...

Signed and titled still life oil on canvas circa 1890 by French Les Nabis painter Henri Lerolle. The work depicts chrysanthemums of red, orange, yellow a...

Antique Fruit still life original oil painting in gold frame 1800's antique kitchen decor apple,oranges and flower vase dark moody still life. Antique Belgium still life of apples, ...

This macabre late-19th-century oil painting by German artist Paula Wildhack (1872-1955) depicts a still life with skull, bible, crucifix, candlestick and flowers. Wildhack was an acc...

A beautiful watercolor of an Iris painted by Otto Strandman (1871-1960). Signed with monogram 'OS' and dated 'Firenze 1899'. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Otto Strandman receive...

Antique French fish oil painting by French artist, Ernest Gaston Amas (1869-1959) see photo. A soft golden palette rendered with exquisite expertise by this well known French artist...

Antique American impressionist oil painting of an interior scene. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed illegibly. Image size, 16L x 20H. Lots of great detail in this painting. Really ...

Very fine example of the artistry of the master still life painter of his day, Edward Chalmers Leavitt. A still life of just cut red roses on a table top. Drops of dew can be even on several of the roses and leaves. Beautifully painted in an incredibly realistic manner. Signed lower left and dated 1897. Condition is excellent. Overall measurements in period replica gold leaf deep cove gallery frame 17 by 25 inches. Frame with normal wear. Provenance: A Pennsylvania estate. Edward C. Leavitt (1842-1904) worked in Providence but is also associated with the Fall River School of still life painting through the influence of, and affinity of his style to, the work of Robert S. Dunning. Leavitt was a student of landscape painter James Morgan Lewin, a founder of Providence’s artistic “group of 1855.” Leavitt’s work is known for its realism, rich coloration, sharp focus and careful finish. His paintings of fruit and flowers incorporate ornate decorative pieces such as silver or bronze ewers, salvers, tankards, or plates on carved and polished tables. Leavitt was a prolific artist, exhibiting frequently at the National Academy of Design, the Boston Art Club, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work inspired other still life painters in Providence, resulting in that city’s own still life tradition, including artists such as John Clinton Spencer, Bryant Chapin, Charles Storer, and George...