Louis Amalvy – Flowers And Sunflowers – Oil On Canvas – Signed And Dated 1964

Large-format oil on canvas depicting a still life dominated by flowers. Sunflowers occupy the foreground. They are accompanied by colorful red, blue, and mauve flowers. All are placed on a support covered with a blue cloth. On the left, we see a large gray vase, the only non-floral element in the composition.

As usual with Amalvy, the colors are vibrant. The red background contrasts with the blue of the table and the yellow of the sunflowers. The brushstrokes are quick and broad.

The work is signed and dated 1964 in the lower left corner. It is in very good condition. The title appears on the back of the work. It is framed with a gilded rod, probably original.

The artist
Louis Amalvy (1918–2003) was a French painter and illustrator. Born in Arcueil, he trained as an artist at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris from 1938. A member of the Resistance during the Second World War, he then developed a career as an illustrator, working for the press and children's publishing.

In the 1950s, he devoted himself fully to painting, exhibiting regularly in the major Parisian salons (Salon d'Automne, Indépendants) as well as in the provinces and abroad. He also taught at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École des Beaux-Arts in Avignon. He lived a large part of his life in Valence (Drôme).

While Amalvy is often compared to southern landscape painters, a significant part of his work focuses on still life, an area where he reveals all his chromatic freedom. His compositions combine fruit, flowers, vases, or everyday objects with vibrant backgrounds. Color reigns supreme: oranges, vibrant reds, deep blues, and acid greens respond to each other in a skillfully orchestrated organization. This chromatic intensity, sometimes close to Fauvism, gives his paintings a luminous and joyful energy.

His still lifes are not intended as simple realistic studies. They transform objects into expressive, almost theatrical presences, where color sometimes overflows the form. Amalvy plays on the contrasts between saturated flat tints and more subtle touches, making the material of the fruits or the fragility of the petals palpable. In some works, he dares an accentuated stylization, reducing the contours to the essentials to better bring out the brilliance of the color. In others, on the contrary, he explores darker or more muted harmonies, as if to remind us that the painted object can also become meditation.

Through this work, Amalvy is part of a French tradition of still life revisited by modernity, where reality serves as a pretext for a celebration of color and light. His warm and sensual canvases continue to seduce collectors and art lovers today.

Work visible at the gallery (07240)
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