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 and well-loved painter of flora.
Alive, delicately bustling, and bathed in light, they’re rendered with the utmost naturalistic effect. They radiate, glowing from inside, and shimmer amid a silvery haze.
Perrachon is considered as one of the finest proponents of still life to have emerged from the ancient city of Lyon. He was a rose specialist and praised for his “lightness of touch”, which recalled “the masters of the Netherlands”.
He undertook his early tuition at the local École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, before heading for the buzzing ateliers of Paris. Here, he trained with two masters - François Lepage (1796-1871) and Pierre-Adrien Chabal-Dussurgey (1819-1902) at the École des Gobelins. The latter was the director of the flower painting workshop at the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins, a long-established tapestry factory.
Both Lepage and Chabal-Dussurgey were talented still life painters, yet offered two distinct styles. Lepage’s approach was somewhat grander and more akin to the 17th-century Dutch flower painters, whereas Chabal-Dussurgey offered light, buoyancy, and delicacy. Combined, the pair provided the foundations of Perrachon’s impressive career and both would leave their mark. His early works, such as a flower-piece from 1858, which is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Saint-Etienne, appears to display a traditional bias, while his later productions, such as this piece, are decidedly fresher.
His talent was evident during the formative stages of his career and, by the age of 25, he’d debuted at the salons of Paris and Lyon. Already, he was establishing himself as an artist of considerable merit. As his career progressed, he became renowned for roses, above all else, and his ‘fragrant’ renditions soon graced the walls of many a Lyonnais drawing-room. His trademark style often sets the flora amid a dewy mist, which conveys a heightened sense of romantic abandon. As if one’s eyes are welling with tears following an impromptu marriage proposal.
As fashions shifted during the 1870s and 1880s, rich yellow, orange and pink blooms became particularly ‘en vogue’ and Perrachon duly obliged. Even during the colder months, these were available via sophisticated hot-houses.
In 1880, following an exhibition at the Salon Lyonnais, a critic at the Lyon-revue celebrated his roses “of an admirable freshness and transparency” which appeared “always damp with rain and bathed in an opal atmosphere”. Indeed, it was a sentiment echoed by many.
Towards the end of his career, he was elected as president of the Société Lyonnaise des Beaux-Arts, having developed a considerable reputation both as an artist and a teacher. His students included Claudia Bret-Charbonnier, Thérèse Guérin, Marie Girard-Nauwelaers, Marie Hodieux-Belous, Mathilde Mitton and his grandson, Joseph Perrachon (1883-1969). He’s represented at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne.
Signed in the lower right and held in a later frame.
Learn more about André Perrachon in our directory.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 23” x 26” / 59cm x 66cm
Year of creation: c. 1880
Provenance: Private collection, UK.
Condition: Cleaned. Craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Frame in very good condition.
Artist’s auction maximum: £21,133 for ‘Fresh Flowers’, Oil on canvas, Sotheby's, La Belle Epoque Including The Age Of Innocence: A 19th Century Childhood, London, 3 May 2000 (lot 231).
Our reference: BRV2089
