Lucien Hector Monod (paris, 1867 – Cannes, 1957) - Project, The Gathering Of Thistles, 1892

Lucien Hector Monod (Paris, 1867 – Cannes, 1957)
Decorative project, collecting thistles, 1892
Oil on semi-circular canvas
36 x 72.5 cm
49.5 x 86 cm with its frame
Signed and dated 'Lucien Monod / 1892 ' bottom right

Exhibition: Probably Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-arts of 1893 (cat. no. 764: Thistle of the dunes).

Born in Paris into a family originally from Switzerland, Lucien Monod intended for a career as a painter and trained at the Académie Julian from 1886 to 1889. Following the teaching of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, he became involved with friendship with Ary Renan, and draws from the master the sense of decoration through the application of a clearly marked synthesis. From 1891, he exhibited each year at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-arts, undoubtedly encouraged by Puvis who became president after the death of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. Also devoting himself to engraving and illustration, Lucien Monod collaborated with the international artistic magazine The Studio and published in L'Estampe moderne in March 1899 La Voix des sources, a symbolist lithograph based on a poem by 'Henri de Régnier. Painted in 1892, the oil on canvas that we are presenting illustrates the influence that Puvis de Chavannes may have had on the years of Lucien Monod's youth. In addition to its very synthetic style, its light colors inspired by the art of frescoes, its timeless theme and its purely decorative character inevitably refer to the author of the Sacred Wood. In a bluish shades only nuanced by the yellow of the sand, the artist represented a young woman picking thistles on the beach, facing the sea. Occupying the entire foreground of the composition with its blue flowers surrounded by thorny bracts, the Dune thistle constitutes a decorative motif of choice widely used by Art Nouveau. It also allows us to locate the scene on the coasts of Brittany, where this plant was consumed for several centuries, and used in particular for its medicinal virtues. The semi-circular format of our canvas may be surprising, but is most probably explained by the connection of this composition to the competition for the decoration of the dining room of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris between 1891 and 1893, to which Puvis undoubtedly invited Monod to participate. Indeed, in addition to the three ceilings, the project consisted of eight tympanums arranged under semi-circular arches, representing in an allegorical mode the work related to the table, including picking[1]. After several procrastinations (the competition was restarted in 1893), it was the painter Georges Bertrand who was chosen to create a very naturalistic decor, still in place today. Probably exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-arts in 1893 (cat. no. 764), our painting is intended to be more symbolist in that it suggests the golden age of a full communion of man with a healing and benevolent nature, while the evening sun illuminates the rippling waves with its last orange reflections. [1] See Cat. exp. The triumph of town halls – great republican decorations in Paris, 1870-1914 (Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, November 8, 1986 - January 18, 1987), Alençon, Alençon printing house, 1986, p. 431-437.