Henry Déziré (1878–1965), Studio Still Life With Bust And Fruit Oil On Canvas 81 × 60 Cm

Henry Déziré (1878–1965), Studio Still Life with Bust and Fruit

Oil on canvas
81 × 60 cm
Circa 1930

This still life brings together a fruit bowl, bunches of grapes, a pear and a vase alongside the bust of a young figure. Several paintings or fragments of compositions appear in the background, bringing the world of the artist’s studio directly into the picture.

Henry Déziré (1878–1965), born in Libourne and died in Paris, trained at the Académie Julian under William Bouguereau and Gabriel Ferrier, and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, gradually moving away from academic teaching.

His career was already well established before the First World War. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français and regularly at the Salon d’Automne, as well as in the exhibitions of the Société Moderne at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. In 1920, the Galerie Druet devoted a solo exhibition to his work. Several of his paintings were acquired by the French State and entered public collections.

From the second half of the 1920s onwards, still life became increasingly important in his painting. Here Déziré brings together fruit, objects, sculpture and paintings within a compact, frontal space. The composition thus becomes an indirect portrait of the artist’s studio, constructed through the objects that inhabited his everyday surroundings.