Marie Antoinette Queroy Orientalist Painting: Bouquet Of Oriental Zinnia Flowers, Art Deco, Hst

Marie-Antoinette QUEROY (1881–1977) – Bouquet of Zinnias and Marigolds – Algeria, ca. 1920–1930 – Oil on canvas

A beautiful floral still life by Marie-Antoinette Queroy, depicting a generous bouquet of garden flowers arranged in a dark blue ceramic pitcher.

The bouquet consists mainly of zinnias and marigolds (calendulas), in a very vibrant range of yellows, oranges, reds, and greens. The flowers are depicted at various stages of bloom, from buds to large, fully open corollas. Their deliberately loose arrangement lends the bouquet a beautiful natural vitality and evokes a sense of transience.

The composition relies on the contrast between the warm tones of the flowers and the deep blue of the vase. The very light gray-beige background is rendered with broad, fluid brushstrokes, allowing the texture of the canvas to show through. The painting is built up with quick, sometimes impastoed brushstrokes, particularly in the yellow and orange petals, while the foliage is rendered with a more energetic touch.

The vase, solid and dark, anchors the lower part of the composition. Its blue-gray reflections and rustic shape contrast with the lightness of the bouquet.

Marie-Antoinette Queroy was a French artist. Her work in Algeria is attested to in 1926 by a signed, dated, and geographically specified watercolor depicting the home of the painter Étienne Dinet in Bou Saâda.  This stay allows us to place part of her work within the context of French Orientalist painting of the interwar period.

Artist: Marie-Antoinette QUEROY (1881–1977)

Subject: Bouquet of zinnias and marigolds in a blue vase

School: French School – Orientalist painter

Period: circa 1920–1930

Technique: Oil on canvas

Overall dimensions with frame: 42 × 32 cm

Signed lower left “M. Ant. Queroy”

Provenance: The artist’s estate. This work is part of a collection preserved in the family estate and dates from the period of his travels in Algeria in the 1920s. 6 other paintings available in our other listings

Oval frame made of wood and gilded stucco with a design of palmettes and stylized foliage, Art Deco period

Good condition—see photographs