Francine Chimène, Traces And Imprints, French Woman Painter From Chatou, 1985

Francine Chimène, Traces and Imprints, French Woman Painter from Chatou, 1985

Francine Chimène (1929–2019)
Oil and mixed media on canvas
65 × 50 cm
French canvas format 15 P
Signed “Chimène” lower right
Dated on the reverse of the stretcher: “oct. (October) (19)85”
Original frame painted white
Good condition

Abstract composition by Francine Chimène, a French woman painter active in Chatou, near Paris. Although almost entirely detached from figuration, the work retains a strong emotional charge, conveyed through color, rhythm and the tension between the different areas of the surface.

Broad fields of grey, pink, ivory and violet alternate with clumps of paint, red and black accents, scratches, incised marks and finger impressions. The contrast between flat surfaces and accumulations of paint creates a vibrant space in which the gesture remains strongly present without disturbing the balance of the composition.

The paint surface becomes both structure and language, transforming the canvas into a visual writing made of traces, rhythms and interruptions.

The painting belongs to the most decisively abstract phase of Chimène’s work. The date on the reverse of the stretcher places it precisely in October 1985.

Francine Chimène lived and worked in Chatou, on the banks of the Seine, a town historically associated with the Impressionists and the Île des Impressionnistes. Her daughter, Marion Dillange (1963–2020), was also a painter, working mainly in abstraction and collage, reflecting an interesting artistic dialogue between the two generations.