Adrien Moreau (French, 1843-1906) Field Flowers

Description:

Adrien Moreau (French, 1843-1906)

Field Flowers
Signed and dated "ADRIEN.MOREAU.1874" lower left, titled on a presentation plaque.
Oil on panel, 25 1/2 x 20 7/8 in. (65.0 x 53.0 cm),in a period frame.
Condition: Fine craquelure.

Provenance: Descended within a family to the current Rhode Island collection.

N.B. Titled Field Flowers, this delicately-rendered painting invites us to consider if the graceful ladies, exquisitely dressed and adorned with hats and parasols, aren't the true flowers in this field. Adrien Moreau was a very successful French genre and history painter and also a noted watercolorist and illustrator. Born into an artistic family, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under the French Academic painter Isidore Alexandre Augustin Pils (1813-1875). Moreau debuted at the Paris Salon in 1868, winning a medal there in 1876, and medals at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 and 1900. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1892, and the year following, his painting The Bath was featured in the French section at at the World's Columbian Exposition. It has been noted that Moreau was equally at home painting landscape and figures. His historically inspired works as well as his mature works featuring figures in a landscape were sought after by patrons not only in France but in the United States, where wealthy Americans acquired many of his important paintings.
Estimate $15,000-20,000

Framed dimensions are 39 x 34 1/2 x 4 inches.

A very small (1/16 inch) abrasion or similar in the sky beneath the parasol on the right and just above the left shoulder of the woman in pink. Two even smaller accretions also in this area. These may well be original to the work.

No sign of any retouch under UV examination. Craquelure is extremely fine and is not noticeable. Minor frame abrasions.


Items may have wear and tear, imperfections, or the effects of aging. Any condition statement given, as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Skinner shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.

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