Eugénie Salanson (1836-1912), Still Life With Grapes

Eugénie Salanson (1836-1912),

Still life with grapes
French school of the 19th century

Originally from the Somme where she was born in 1836, Eugénie Salanson is a French artist who has won many awards. She learned drawing at a young age in Calais before settling in Paris in 1869.
It was at the Académie Julian that she perfected her apprenticeship, not being able to access the School of Fine Arts still reserved for men at that time.
She benefits from the teaching of 2 great painters including William Bouguereau and Léon Cogniet. Eugénie quickly stood out and obtained numerous institutional and private commissions. A prolific artist, she exhibited at the Salons from 1864 to 1906.
She shared her life between Paris in her studio where she rubbed shoulders with Camiille Claudel and Saint-Pair-sur-Mer a few kilometers from Granville in the Cotentin.
The women and children who fish on the beaches of Granville inspire many portraits and paintings.
She died in 1912 in her Norman villa.

Our painting presents a still life, on an entablature a crystal cup overflowing with white and black grapes, a Bayeux porcelain vase containing flowers is overturned, a few drops of water adorn the stems and the table, in the background a jug in enamelled sandstone and a few apples remind us of the artist's attachment to Normandy.
The treatment of the drops of water and the flowers is of extreme finesse and great delicacy, the treatment of the light on the grape cup reveals the mastery of the artist in the art of still life.
This composition is inspired by Dutch still lifes of the 17th century, in 1863 our artist exhibited for the first time in Rouen and obtained a medal for a still life, ours is signed on the entablature on the left and dated 1868.

Provenance: descendants of the artist.
Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left E. Salanson 1868
Original canvas, key frame.
Dimensions: 48 x 36 cm
Old frame in gilded wood Frame dimensions: 66 x 58 cm

Museums: Portrait of a young girl, Bertrand Museum, Châteauroux. Prayer for France, 1874, Musée du Vieux-Château, Laval in Mayenne. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1871, Church of Saint-Nicolas Villers Cotterêts. The Francine de Granville, Manchester, Art Gallery. Portrait of a little girl, Manchester Art Gallery. the Fisherwoman, 1892 Rochester (New York), Memorial Art Gallery.

Bibliography: E. Bénézit, Dictionary of painters, sculptors, designers and engravers, Editions Gründ, Paris, 1999, 12, p. 205-206.