Lyon school of the beginning of the XIXth... - Lot 52 - Artenchères

Lot 52
Go to lot
Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 7 762EUR
Lyon school of the beginning of the XIXth... - Lot 52 - Artenchères
Lyon school of the beginning of the XIXth century, attributed to Augustin THIERRIAT (1789-1870) Flowers in an alabaster vase Oil on canvas 74,5 x 55 cm The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon has a very similar composition dated 1813 and of a smaller size: 65 x 48,5 cm, acquired from Berjon's heirs by the City of Lyon in 1844. Bibliography: Élisabeth Hardouin-Fugier, Étienne Grafe, La peinture lyonnaise au XIXe, Paris, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, 1995, reproduced full page, in color, page 66 and given to Antoine Berjon Exhibition/Bibliography: Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Fleurs de Lyon 1807-1917, June-September 1982, no. 39, reproduced and described in the exhibition catalog on page 100, by a text co-authored by Élisabeth Hardouin-Fugier and Étienne Grafe: "This work differs from the one in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in several ways. Of much larger dimensions, it presents notable variants. The flowers are enlarged in proportion, the poppy capsules that appear towards the top of the bouquet on the right have been replaced here by slender foliage. More foliage has been added to the top of the bouquet, towards the center. The foliage is clearly bluer, the overall chromaticism is stronger, the overall effect more icy. What conclusions can be drawn from this? We can only point out that in the 1843-44 exhibition, numbers 19 and 22 bear the same title: Flowers in an alabaster vase. One of these two works could well be N° 56 of the inventory after death: ''painting painted on canvas, hanging from the previous one, representing a vase of flowers in alabaster, containing a bouquet of flowers, signed Berjon... estimated 250 francs''. It is undoubtedly the Flowers in an alabaster vase dated 1813 that the Museum of Lyon keeps. Are we here in the presence of the other work that bears the same name? The very fine quality of the execution and the variants that this painting presents, the much harsher lighting, leave us perplexed. Obviously, it is not a literal copy. Is it a repetition of the 1813 work, executed 25 or 30 years later by the artist? The vase, just as admirable as the one of 1813, the tulip and the forget-me-nots of an execution as prestigious as that of the big white peony or the larkspur, contrast with some weaker pieces such as the white rose and the bindweed which, moreover, are not the most successful flowers of the 1813 painting. Should we opt for a work in which the master and a pupil would each have made their contribution? Neither the liberties taken with the 1813 painting, nor the very different dimensions, nor the very fine craftsmanship that is revealed here, allow us to see a simple workshop work. It seems that in the last years of his life, Berjon did not have a workshop, nor did he have regular students. The examination of the canvas and the stretcher, which could date from 1835 as well as from 1850, does not allow us to make a definitive decision. Is it a rather free copy executed by a very skilful painter of flowers such as André Perrachon, for whom it would then be a work of extreme youth? It is hard to believe because the surety of the craft, evident here, is acquired only after years of practice. The last element to be added to this dossier: the posthumous portrait of Berjon by Jacomin (1854, coll. part.) shows the Flowers in an alabaster vase. The canvas is set on an easel, but it is difficult to tell whether the elderly artist, dressed in the fashion of 1835, is working on the painting, which does not seem to have the characteristic foliage of the work we are exhibiting. Even given Jacomin's sometimes fanciful perspective, the flowers he depicts seem much larger than those of 1813. Until further notice, therefore, we will opt for a late variant, probably largely autograph, of the Lyon Museum painting." La Gloire de Lyon, La peinture de l'École lyonnaise du XIXe siècle, travelling exhibition in Japan (Gifu, Ibaraki, Hiroshima) between July and December 1990, our painting reproduced n°17, reproduced on page 63 of the catalog published by the Museum of Fine Arts of GIfu in1990
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue