Henri GEOFFROY called Geo
Gluttony or The Selfish Perfect
Gouache on canvas
Dimensions: 15 x 29.5cm
With frame: 35 x 49 cm
sold
Painter of the delicate and the sensitive, Henry Jules Jean Geoffroy made a reputation for himself by painting children at their occupations.
He was able to translate with great tenderness and delicacy the naive charm of the latter. Painter and watercolourist, he began his career at the Salon of 1874.
Here, he depicts three young children. One proudly holds his trophy: a bar of chocolate. Such a treasure cannot be ignored: the child is surrounded by two others, ready to claim their share of the delight, a rare commodity at the beginning of the century. The blouses suggest that the children are schoolchildren. However, the painter refuses to contextualize: he unites the characters in a homogeneous background of a light and fresh green.
Bibliography:
• The trio of gourmands is inspired by Le Lavabo à l’école kindergarten , photograph reproduced on page 102 in the book by Maryse Aleksandrowski, Alain Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein, Henry, Jules, Jean Geoffroy dit Géo (1853 -1924), Libraire des museums, 2012
