Lot 151: JEAN CHALEYE (1878-1960) OIL ON PANEL

Post Impressionist Jean Chaleye (1878-1960) "Le Petit Pont" Oil on Panel. Signed lower left. In gilt frame. In frame measures 17"x21 3/4"x1 3/4". Weight 5 pds. PROVENANCE: A Paris France/Charleston SC Estate. Jean Chaleye was considered one of the most important French post impressionist artists. He was born to working class parents on 22nd April, 1878 at St. Etienne and died at Le Puy in 1960. He trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyon, then at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He began his career as a commercial engraver then worked for a while in the textile industry where flower painting had developed as an important discipline and was used decoratively in the manufacture of silk. Along with a group of other artists he began to paint flowers in a new fashion, rendering them light and transparent and full of grace. His still life paintings of flowers, which he continued to paint throughout his life, are among his very best works. n 1902 Jean Chaleye took part in the prestigious Fair of French Artists and subsequently exhibited widely, including a retrospective at the Organerie Du Luxemburg, Paris and the Wally Findlay Gallery in New York. In 1953 the city of Marseille held a jubilee exhibition to celebrate his then fifty year career.

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