Lot 108: Simon Saint-Jean (French, 1808-1860)

A Bouquet of Roses, Daisies and Violets with a Butterfly on a Mossy Bank signed and dated 'Saint Jean 1850' (lower left) oil on canvas 19 3/8 x 241/2 in. (49.2 x 62.3 cm.) Painted in 1850 PROVENANCE Goupil & Co., M. Knoedler Successors, New York. Henry C. Gibson, Philadelphia (purchased from the above, September 1871 for $2500). The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1892 (bequest from the above). LITERATURE E. Strahan, ed., Art Treasures of America, New York, circa 1880, vol. I, p. 80. EXHIBITION Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Beneficent Connoisseurs (Henry C. Gibson Collection), 1974, no. 93. New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, A Portrait of Young America, 1975, no. 75. NOTES Perhaps the most beloved painter of the School of Lyon, Simon Saint-Jean quickly established a solid international reputation as a flower painter with an international clientele scattered throughout Continental Europe and Russia. Other distinguished patrons included the Rothschilds as well as friends of art dealers such as Paul Durand-Ruel. This classic work illustrates Saint-Jean's concern for strict botanical precision. One of his students recounted how he would often take two days to paint a single rosebud. His choice of flowers and their placement at ground level, presumably at the edge of a forest introduces a more romantic element to his paintings. Gibson's purchase is listed in the account books of Goupil's branch office in New York. By 1857, Knoedler had effectively taken over Goupil's New York operations, even though the gallery retained the name up until 1891. *This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice in the back of the catalogue.