Claude Vénard (1913–1999) “still Life With Coffee Pot And Fruit Bowl” Paris Cubism Usa

Claude VÉNARD (1913–1999)

“Still Life with a Coffee Pot and a Fruit Bowl”

Oil on canvas,
Signed lower right,

Provenance:
- Note on the reverse regarding a possible past exhibition/sale by the Félix Vercel Gallery in New York, United States: "March 1968 - 1,800" and two labels "$1,800 - 9,000 Fr"
- Private collection,
- Auction on 10/24/2012 at Artcurial in Paris,
- Galerie Cortade'Art in Montauban (certificate of authenticity from the gallery provided)
- Private collection,

A major work by the French painter Claude Vénard depicting a still life on a red background featuring a coffee pot and a fruit bowl on a checkered tabletop.
The artist uses a dense, thick, and relief-like medium, often applied with a palette knife, which gives the painting a rich and vibrant texture. This almost sculptural approach to painting creates visible impasto that captures the light and lends the composition a unique physical presence. The surfaces are not smooth but rich in layers, revealing the process of scraping and building up layers of pigment.

Visually, the composition juxtaposes rigid geometric shapes and black graphic lines with areas of more organic, textured colors. Shades of ochre, off-white, and brown contrast with bursts of bright red and dark backgrounds. This chromatic contrast, combined with the weightiness of the material, structures the space of the still life, giving it an atmosphere that is at once modern, raw, and poetic.

Born in Paris, he chose his path at the age of 17. A rebel against academic art, he left the École des Beaux-Arts after just a 48-hour trial period to focus on the École des Arts Appliqués and self-directed learning. To support himself, he worked for several years as an art restorer at the Louvre Museum, a crucial experience that allowed him to immerse himself in the materials and techniques of the great old masters.

Initially associated with the realist group Forces Nouvelles in the 1930s, he quickly broke away from it to develop his own artistic language. After World War II, he made a name for himself with a reinvented, instinctive, and liberated form of Cubism. He also became one of the founding members of the famous Salon de Mai in 1943.
His style is characterized by compositions with pronounced angular structures, drawing on the legacy of Picasso and Braque. He employed a unique texture using very thick paint (impasto), which he often reworked with a palette knife. His color palette remained luminous and vibrant. In contrast to the dark pessimism of some of his contemporaries, such as Bernard Buffet, his paintings exude an optimism and joie de vivre that were praised at the time by his friend Jacques Prévert.

With a distinguished international career, he exhibited his still lifes and landscapes around the world, notably in New York, London, and Tokyo. His works are now part of the collections of prestigious institutions such as the Tate Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He passed away at the end of 1999 in Sanary-sur-Mer.

Dimensions: 100 x 100 cm, unframed

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