Jules Arsène Garnier (1847-1889), Bilboquet Player, 1879, Oil On Canvas

Jules Arsène Garnier (1847-1889)
Bilboquet player, 1879
Oil on canvas Signed, dated “79” and dedicated “à Madame Henri” at the top right
Dimensions of the work: 32 x 22 cm
Perfect condition

After initial training at the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse, Jules Arsène Garnier joined the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1867 in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. An academic artist, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1869 then at the Salon des artistes français until his death in 1889. Jules-Arsène Garnier's painting is part of the so-called Pompier current in reference to the smooth and shiny helmets of firefighters reminiscent of those of Greek and Roman warriors. This slick art, of an extremely neat workmanship, is the dominant current of the 19th century carried by the Academy of Fine Arts.

Genre scenes and anecdotal subjects borrowed from history and literature earned the artist great success during his lifetime. He reinvents them in an academic style within large eclectic compositions. It incongruously stages ostentatious female nudes alongside characters in costumes inspired by medieval times and the Renaissance. Heir to the Troubadour style that emerged during the Restoration, Jules-Arsène Garnier draws both from the stories of Victor Hugo (Le Roi s'amuse, whose action takes place during the reigns of Louis XII and François I) and from the tales of François Rabelais. In particular, he produced a famous series of illustrations of Pantagruel and Gargantua with a licentious lightness.

The bilboquet player that we offer is part of this craze for the medieval and Renaissance past. The game of cup-and-ball was popularized in France in the 16th century under the reign of Henri III who played it with his court companions. We find the figure of the bilboquet player in other works by the artist, always in an idealized costume that is meant to be from the period. Our character, in a yellow and green coat and wearing a red felt cap typical of the end of the 15th century, was taken up by Jules-Arsène Garnier in his painting Jour de fête produced the same year and exhibited at the Salon de 1879 under the number 1315. It represents the figure of the troubadour, the poet, the courteous musician.