A Still life with a book
Signed upper right
Oil on canvas
54 x 65 cm
no frame
In good condition, a small superficial scratch on the lower right side, please refer to the detail picture
A particularly rich and interesting still life by Maurice Asselin. Fruits, flowers and a book, and this book is not just any book, since the title reads clearly : "La Symphonie pastorale" (The Pastoral Symphony) by André Gide, published in 1919. So there is a real tribute to the writer or perhaps a wink.
Maurice Asselin also shares with us his intimacy, his reading, the flowers and fruits he particularly liked to paint.
This is a painting that can be appreciated not only up close in its richness of texture, but which also benefits from being seen from a slightly distant point of view, where it strikes by its depth and where the perspective of the table takes on its meaning.
Maurice Asselin is a painter and engraver, member of the "Ecole de Paris" .
For the famous Art Historian, Bernard Dorival , Maurice Asselin was - with André Dunoyer de Segonzac , Charles Dufresne , Paul-Elie Gernez and Henry de Waroquier - among the painters of the "realistic reaction" which, to "idealism and photographic realism " of the academic tradition of the 19th century, " prefer the frank realism of the Impressionists and the sincerity with which they questioned the nature.
Against the unrealism of cubists, they pose as heirs of the independent masters of the third quarter of 19th century. And Bernard Dorival strongly supports his statement by quoting our artist: "If you really like painting, you will not only ask it to be a decoration for the walls of your home, but first of all to be a food for your life interior ", thus professes Maurice Asselin who continues:" no brain combination, no theory can give birth to a work of art ... Art springs from the marveled love of life "