Charles Bichet (1863-1929) "still Life With Peonies ~ 1920" School Of Crozant, Limoges, Jouhaud

New work by Charles Théodore Bichet, a gouache watercolor representing a still life with flowers circa 1920, signed with the red studio stamp lower right Format of the sheet without frame 41x32cm. It is therefore a superb and quite large gouache watercolor by Charles Bichet who paints here a still life with vases of peonies around 1920, as usual at this period Bichet uses a Fauve touch and palette, here with very beautiful greens, pinks, ochres, browns, blue....And above all how can we not think of his Fauvist colleague Louis Valtat when seeing this work, in fact the similarity between their works is often quite striking. I no longer present Bichet, one of the most important Limougeaud painters with his friend Eugène Alluaud and his son-in-law Léon Jouhaud to whom he gave his first lessons; he is of course also part of the Crozant school, since he will set up his easel on the banks of the Creuse, often towards Anzême, but his favorite places will remain the surroundings of Limoges, as well as Eymoutiers, or Corrèze, but also La Rochelle and Paris where he was born. Bichet will finally be an excellent painter of still lifes as well as portraits, in short a complete painter who stuck to his time; it has sometimes been said that he was a talented follower, but this was not the case, because we now know that he produced Fauvist works from 1904/1906, therefore in full Fauvism and therefore at the same period as Vlaminck, Valtat, Dufy, Matisse etc... However, despite some good sales results sometimes exceeding €4,000 or even €10,000 on some portraits, its rating is still very low compared to the quality of its production. For the anecdote, during an exhibition in Limoges where Bichet shared the exhibition spaces with Armand Guillaumin, the latter could not help but speak highly of Bichet's pastels, a remark which will be more than noted and which will go down in history, as we knew that the master of Creuse was very stingy with compliments, especially towards his fellow painters... Charles Théodore Antoine Bichet was born on December 15, 1863 in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. He is a student of Edmond Lechevallier-Chevignard at the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. He exhibited at the Salon of French Artists notably in 1903, 1904 and 1905. In 1884, he began teaching drawing in schools in the City of Paris. Initially a classical painter and watercolorist, he then turned to post-impressionism and Fauvism from 1902/1903. Charles-Théodore Bichet died on March 28, 1929 in Limoges. This watercolor is in very good condition for its approximately 100 years, delivered either without frame or I will take care of having it framed Work guaranteed authentic