Gustave Riquet (1866-1938) The Carnations Of Life, 1898 Signed Watercolor

Gustave Riquet (1866-1938)
Les Œillets de la vie, 1898 (Carnations of life)
Signed and dated on the lower right, 
The text on the lower left is the following "Cueille dès aujourd'hui les oeillets de la vie" , which can be translated as "Pick today the carnations of life"
watercolor on paper
37.5 x 51.5 cm
In good condition
In a modern frame : 53 x 67 cm

The text clearly gives the meaning of this allegorical portrait of a young girl picking carnations, in the ancient tradition of Vanitas, to remind us of the brevity of youth which lasts only as long as the flowers. The painter himself, while still young, is part of this long iconographic tradition and stylistically in the symbolist movement.
The way he paints flowers is also reminiscent of art nouveau and its undulating forms.

Gustave David Riquet was born on June 26 1866 he died on July 27 1938
He was a French painter.
Gustave Riquet was the son of a merchant from Nîmes.
He studied in the workshops of Carolus-Duran , Dubufe and Galland.
In 1897, he was appointed professor of painting and decorative composition at the Regional School of Fine Arts in Amiens . This is how he became Amiens by adoption, and remained so until his death. 
His work, in Amiens and in the region, is important: easel paintings, watercolors or illustrations and, above all, monumental painting. Most of this work is devoted to religious art.
Pierre Dubois, in his article published in the Journal d'Amiens in 1924, described the painter as follows: "The composition, impeccably ordered and drawn, of his hagiographical pages or his allegories, is always simple, very readable: no stage, extra accessories, “frills”; art is only religious if it is honest, clearly demonstrative, without affectation. The colors, provided by an extensive palette, are frankly posed, their harmony obtained without the tricks, so frequent, the "tricks" of the trade. This idealism of conception and this loyalty of technique apparently M. Riquet owes [them] to the great Florentine primitives and to the English "Pre-Raphaelites" of the middle of the 19th century . century: these are two groups of noble and powerful masters. But our painter, by taking them as advisers, knew how to defend his own and quite modern temperament. »
He became a member of the Society of French Artists in 1908. He was also an officer of Public Instruction.
He died in Nîmes onJuly 27, 1938, still residing in Amiens.