Charles-françois-prosper Guérin (1875 - 1939) - Still Life With Citrus Fruits, Dated 1901

Still life with citrus fruits, vase and silver cup, 1901

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower center
Dimensions: 50 x 61 cm With frame: 65 x 76 cm

A luminous and synthetic still life featuring two lemons, two oranges, a silver beaker and a turquoise blue vase decorated with golden circles. The whole is arranged on a wooden entablature. A white tablecloth, seemingly tossed carelessly, lights up the scene. The light hangs on the silver of the timpani. On the back wall, a frieze decoration, whose colors echo the blue and the gilding of the vase, provides an additional element of decoration. The shimmering colors bear witness to the painter's qualities as a colourist. Harmony and skilfully arranged disorder characterize this painter's work by the artist at the age of 26.


On the occasion of an exhibition in London, Huntly Le Charretier wrote of his work: “Another spectator will be attracted by the audacious prodigality of Ch.Guérin, who shows how the strongest primary colors can be used. And whose work has a decorative value that the muddy and colorless paintings of our day do not possess. »


Son of a banker from Sens, Charles-François-Prosper Guérin, a post-impressionist painter, studied with Gustave Moreau at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. He then became friends with Georges d'Espagnat. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1896. Then he became a member of the National Society of Fine Arts and exhibited there regularly. He exhibited ten paintings at the Salon d'Automne of 1904. In 1901 he became a member of the Independent Artists Committee. In 1913, he was one of the French painters exhibited in New York at the "Armory Show" and in 1914, participated in the exhibition of contemporary French art in Japan. Also a color lithographer, he produced compositions in the style of the 18th century. He has illustrated a number of bibliophile works, including "les Fêtes galantes" by Paul Verlaine. He was named an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1932. Professor of painting for nearly twenty years at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, he ended his career as head of the painting workshop of the Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts in 1937 to 1939 at the National School of Fine Arts.

Bibliography: • Tristan Klingsor, Charles Guérin. Critical study, collection “New French painters” (No. 2), Paris, NRF-Gallimard, 1920. • “Charles-François-Prosper Guérin” [archive], extract from the entry in the Bénézit dictionary Paid access, on Oxford Art Online, 201

Museums: In Paris: Musée d'Orsay: Nude of a young woman, around 1906. Paris Museum of Modern Art Center Pompidou: Portrait of Charles-Louis Philippe, 1903. In the provinces: Beauvais, museum de l'Oise: Two elegant women. Roubaix, The Pool: The Reader. Sens, municipal museum: Narcisse, 1896. Poitier, The lady with bracelets Pau, naked with the candlestick Toulon, naked woman seated. •Internationally: Saint-Petersburg, Hermitage Museum: Naked Woman with a Hat, 1907; Shchukin Collection