Jules Gustave Besson - Flowers And Oranges

Jules Gustave BESSON Paris, 1868 – Saigon, 1942 Oil on canvas 46 x 38 cm (53 x 44 cm with frame) Signed upper left “JBesson” Academic painter, student of Cabanel and Elie Delaunay, Jules Besson first painted religious subjects before evolving towards naturalism in genre scenes such as The Laurel Harvesters (Museum of Fine Arts of Marseille). Naturalism is a movement in painting which strives to render beings and things in a way close to natural in spirit and style. Bastien-Lepage is the main representative in France. In the 1880s he exerted a profound influence on young painters, in France but also in Europe and as far as Scandinavia with painters of astonishing clarity. Our painting is a beautiful example of naturalist painting, simple and natural at the same time as very effective. A beautiful painted figure, painting of a model and dated 1893 (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris) recalls our painting as an exercise in style. A small still life but remarkable for its elegance, lightness and clarity.