Charles-François-Prosper GUÉRIN (1875 – 1939)
A still life of fruit composed of lemons and oranges from 1901 by Charles Francois Prosper Guérin, post impressionist. This luminous work integrates colorful elements such as a turquoise blue vase and a curly decoration
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated 1901 lower center
Dimensions: 50 x 61 cm
With frame: 65 x 76 cm
sold
A synthetic still life with citrus fruits and various elements
A bright and synthetic still life featuring two lemons, two oranges, a silver tumbler and a turquoise blue vase decorated with golden circles. The whole is arranged on a wooden entablature. A white tablecloth, seemingly thrown carelessly, illuminates the scene. The light catches on the silver of the timbale. On the back wall, a curly decoration, whose colors echo the blue and gold of the vase, brings an additional element of decoration.
Contrasting and shimmering colors
Harmony and disorder skillfully arranged characterize this painting. The shimmering colors testify to the painter’s colorist qualities. A characteristic that we find throughout his work.
On the occasion of a 1913 London exhibition, Huntly Le Charretier wrote of his work, “Another viewer will be attracted by Ch.Guérin’s bold prodigality, which shows how the strongest primary colors can be used. And whose work has a decorative value that the muddy, colorless paintings of our day do not possess.”
Biography
Son of a banker from Sens, Charles-François-Prosper Guérin, post impressionist painter, studied with Gustave Moreau at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He then became friends with Georges d’Espagnat. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1896. Then he became a member of the National Society of Fine Arts and exhibited there regularly. He exhibited ten paintings at the 1904 Autumn Salon. In 1901 he became a member of the Independent Artists Committee.
In 1913, he was one of the French painters exhibited in New York at the “Armory Show” and in 1914, he participated in the exhibition of contemporary French art in Japan.
He was also a color lithographer and produced compositions in the taste of the 18th century. He has illustrated several bibliophile works, including Paul Verlaine’s “Fêtes galantes”.
He was named Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1932.
Professor of painting for nearly twenty years at the Academy of the Grande Chaumière, he ended his career as head of the painting workshop of the Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts from 1937 to 1939 at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
Bibliography
– Tristan Klingsor, Charles Guérin. Étude critique, collection ” Les peintres français nouveaux ” (n° 2), Paris, NRF-Gallimard, 1920.
– Charles-François-Prosper Guérin” [archive], excerpt from the entry in the Bénézit dictionary Access for a fee, on Oxford Art Online, 201
Museums
• In Paris :
Musée d’Orsay: Nude of a Young Woman, ca. 1906.
Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
Center Pompidou: Portrait of Charles-Louis Philippe,
– In the provinces:
Beauvais, museum of the Oise: Two elegant women,.
Roubaix, La Piscine : La Liseuse.
Sens, municipal museum: Narcissus, 1896.
Poitier, The lady with bracelets
Pau, naked at the chandelier
Toulon, sitting naked woman.
– Internationally:
Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum: Nude Woman with Hat, 1907; Shchukin Collection
Source
Wikipedia
