Gaston Gilbert Daniel Save Sold at Auction Prices

François-Adolphe Grison & Gaston G. D. Save

François-Adolphe Grison (French, 1845-1914) and Gaston Gilbert Daniel Save (French, 1844-1901), "The Tavern", 1874, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, "Kurt E. Schon, Ltd., New Orleans" label with artist and title on stretcher, 111 1/4 in. x 62 7/8 in., framed. Provenance: Private Collection; Kurt E. Schon, Ltd., New Orleans, LA. Note: Gaston Save, who had attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, exhibited in the Salon of 1870 and won a bronze medal. Passionate about history, politics, and theater, Save often created illustrations for magazines as well as collaborating on large-scale wall decorations and theater sets. Adolphe Grison, who had exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1873, was a well-known genre scene painter. The two artists collaborated to create the cheerful late 18th century tavern scene offered here. This immense canvas is a feast for the eyes. Splendor and frivolity abound as each square inch offers new details to be discovered. The foreground is framed with meticulously rendered flora and an abandoned game of lawn bowling. At the center of the canvas, a young child and man with a hurdy-gurdy play for a group of sumptuously-dressed and well-coiffed ladies and gentlemen, while the tavern owner and a comely maiden fetch mid-day drinks. In the background, a teeming crowd enjoys a festival on a bright summer day, and one can almost hear the revelry. The impressive verticality of the canvas topped with a carved arch makes the work a dramatic architectural feat as well as an artistic one.