Colourful Pointillist Corrida, Provence South Of France Circa 1900 Bullfighting

A beautiful delicately colored and modern work representing a Provençal feria / corrida, by Henry Jacquier. Henry Jacquier (St Etienne 1878-Cannes 1921) had a short life. After studying at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Lyon where he obtained several medals, he continued his studies in Paris at the Académie Nationale with Aimé Morot, Flameng and Cormon, and made his debut at the Salon in 1898. Academic painter of historical subjects, as well as the portraitist of several princes, princesses and statesmen, his works can be found today at the Palace of Versailles, the National Army Museum, and the Smithsonian. Here we have a rare and intimate painting, certainly painted in the south of France; a corrida almost pointillist in style. If you look closely, you can make out dozens of small figures on the benches: my favorite is the lady with the up-do to the right of the entrance to the arena. Note also the bull with the blue ears: it is easy to see how my pleasure the artist must have obtained from creating this composition with cheerful and exquisite colours.
Signed lower right, the painting bears an exhibition number "175", which I believe relates to a posthumous retrospective of the artist held in 1923 at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Measuring 18.5 x 23.5 cm without frame, the framed dimensions in a recent frame are 27 x 32 cm