Emilie Charmy "vase Of Flowers" Circa 1920 - Expressionism

In a composition by Emilie Charmy, we find substance, a feverish touch and audacity; the same goes for this painting, a vase that blends into the decor and the white, plum and blood red impasto that are revealed in the middle of a turquoise blue palette.
Colette, her friend, will write of her: "The subtle brush, without artifice, and guided by a lucid passion, it is indeed this brush that attaches, (…) with an infallible lick the drop of light to the varnished leaves of the camellia, the fat velvet to the petals of the rose…"

Emilie Charmy was born in Saint Etienne on April 2, 1878.
Orphaned at the age of five, her older brother Jean became her tutor.
In 1898 they moved to Lyon and until 1902 Emilie Charmy took private lessons from the Lyon painter Jacques Martin, the Lyon School of Fine Arts being inaccessible to women.
In 1903 she exhibited eight of her works in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants and she exhibited there every year until 1910.
In 1906 she participated in the Salon d'Automne in Paris where Berthe Weill noticed her and invited her to a group exhibition in her gallery.
Also in 1906 she became friends with the Fauvist painter Charles Camoin with whom she made several trips: Corsica and Toulon in 1906, Lyon, Toulon and Porquerolles in 1909, Corsica and Cassis in 1910.
In 1910 she set up her studio at 54 rue de Bourgogne in Paris.
Her first major solo exhibition was held in 1911 at Eugène Druet's gallery.
She met Georges Bouche with whom she married late in 1931 but had, in the meantime, given birth to her son, Edmond in 1915. In addition to her regular solo exhibitions in the Jeanne Castel and Charpentier galleries, she exhibited at the Salon des femmes Artistes Modernes where she was the secretary.

The critic Louis Vauxcelles describes her as "one of the most remarkable female artists of our time." (Eclair, June 23, 1921)

As the Second World War approached, Emilie Charmy retired to Auvergne with Georges Bouche, who died in 1941.
After the liberation, she returned to Paris to her studio on rue de Bourgogne.
She exhibited at Jeanne Castel in 1949 and at the Paul Pétrîtes gallery in 1963.

Emilie Charmy died on November 7, 1974, and was buried in the Celles-sur-Druolles cemetery with Georges Bouche.

In 2002, her works were presented in the exhibition "Elles de Montparnasse" at the Musée du Montparnasse in Paris, which dealt with the emancipation of women artists in the interwar period.
Retrospectives:
Kunsthaus Bühler in Stuttgart, Germany, from September to October 1987 and from May to June 1991.
Paul-Dini Museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône, from October 2008 to February 2009.
The Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, from August 2013 to February 2014.

Oil on strong cardboard in perfect condition, signed "E Charmy" lower left and in the back a painting .
Size: 18,1 x 15 Inches without frame and 23,6 x 20,5 Inches with its wooden and stucco frame from Maison RG.