Edgard Maxence, Allegory Of Time And Love, Oil On Panel

Edgard MAXENCE
(Nantes 1871 - 1954 La Bernerie-en-Retz)
Allegory of Time and Love
oil on panel, one board, not parqueted
41 x 33 cm ; 54 x 46 cm (framed)
signed ‘Edgard Maxence’ lower right

Further information :
A student of Jules-Elie Delaunay and Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Maxence helped popularise Symbolism in the 1890s by applying a highly accomplished academic technique to Symbolist subjects.

He took part in the avant-garde Salon de la Rose+Croix between 1895 and 1897, as well as the Salon des artistes français from 1894 to 1939.

With this bouquet of red roses, Maxence demonstrates a remarkable technique, with a luminous touch and a finesse in the details; more particularly in the white lace, the delicate watch with its black strap, but above all in these red roses whose velvetiness seems palpable.

Here, the rose becomes a double symbol: ephemeral beauty and love. What's more, the cut roses suggest transience, reinforced by the watch, which evokes the passage of time.

In this way, Maxence offers a delicate interpretation of the classic themes of still life, sensitively exploring time and the ephemeral.

Selected bibliography:
Edgard Maxence 1871-1954, Les dernières fleurs du symbolisme (cat. exp.), Burozoïque, 2010

Notable museums :
Musée d'Arts, Nantes
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington