Euphémie Muraton (1840–1914), “still Life With Autumn Flowers”

“Still Life with Autumn Flowers in an 18th-Century Copper Chocolate Pot,” oil on canvas, signed lower left “Euphemie Muraton.”

This delicate composition elegantly showcases the talent of Euphémie Muraton, one of the most accomplished artists of French still life in the second half of the 19th century. In a harmonious interplay of autumnal colors, a rich bouquet of dahlias, asters, and wildflowers blooms in an elegant 18th-century copper chocolate bowl, whose warm metallic patina subtly echoes the golden-brown tones of the composition. The masterful rendering of the materials—the reflections of the copper, the transparency of the glass, the velvety texture of the petals, and the freshness of the foliage—reveals a perfect command of light and a keen observation of reality, inherited from the great French naturalist tradition.

Born Euphémie Duhanot in Beaugency (Loiret) in 1840, Euphémie Muraton received her artistic training from M. A. Muraton before marrying the history painter Alphonse Muraton, with whom she shared an artistic vision. She exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1868 and quickly made a name for herself through the quality of her genre scenes, her animal paintings, and above all her still lifes, which were particularly sought after for their elegant execution.

Admitted to the Société des Artistes Français in 1888, she was awarded a bronze medal at the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, cementing a career that was acclaimed by the critics of her time. Her son, Louis Muraton, would also go on to have a brilliant career as a painter.

Euphémie Muraton’s works are now part of the public collections of several French institutions, notably the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art, the Mulhouse Museum of Fine Arts, and the Château-Musée in Dieppe, reflecting the institutional recognition her work enjoys today.

Through the finesse of its execution, the quality of her color palette, and the timeless elegance of her composition, this painting stands as a remarkable example of late 19th-century French still life, where a taste for precious objects is combined with a decorative sensibility imbued with poetry.