In The Style Of Chabrier – Flower Market In A Norman Town – Oil On Canvas – Signed

In the style of CHABRIER, circa 1900 — The Flower Market in a Norman Town (Rouen?)
Oil on canvas, signed lower right (signature unidentified).
Dimensions: 46 x 38 cm, 51.5 x 38 cm with frame.
Very good condition

A lively scene of a flower market at the foot of half-timbered houses. In the foreground, a gardener in an apron presents a pot of flowers to an elegant couple dressed in 18th-century attire: a sky-blue dress for her, a carmine-red suit and a powdered wig for him. Around them, hollyhocks, potted plants, and flowers spilling over the cobblestones fill the scene. In the background, market stalls line up beneath their dark awnings, and a Gothic spire can be glimpsed through the luminous mist, evoking Rouen Cathedral.

The painter plays on a charming anachronism, typical of Belle Époque taste: a very real setting of an old Norman town, populated by gallant figures in the style of Louis XV. These scenes of flower-filled markets in the ancient streets of Normandy were very popular between 1880 and 1914, popularized by several genre painters, with George CHABRIER remaining the best known among them. This work, whose artist we have been unable to identify, is very similar to Chabrier’s in both subject matter and style.

Frame: The painting is set in a wooden and gilded stucco frame with a bronze patina, adorned with stylized foliage and a frieze of gadroons. On the back, a label from Carlos Braun, 32 rue Grignan in Marseille—a framer and distributor for Éditions d’art Braun & Cie of Paris—confirms that the painting was framed long ago and has a southern provenance.

Condition: good overall condition. The canvas shows no cracking; two small, old repairs are visible on the back, but do not affect the front. The frame shows some retouched gilding, consistent with its original bronze patina.

Work on view at the gallery (07240)
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