Bouquet Signed C. Gontier, 19th Century.

This very bright bouquet of flowers is signed C. Gontier, for Clément or Camille Gontier, between the two my heart swings, the signatures of one and the other are very close, as if it were the same painter, and it is quite possible that their works were confused and attributed to one or the other somewhat at random (at least as far as the still lifes are concerned). They are contemporaries and they must have exhibited at the same time... One seems to have been born around 1840, the other was born in 1876, they both exhibited at the Salons des Artistes Français, we do not know the date of death of Camille Gontier while Clément Gontier died in 1918, the latter seems to have known greater notoriety, he was the student of Jean Paul Laurens then of Benjamin Constant, came second in the painting competition for the Prix de Rome, he received the Prix de l'Académie Julian and a third class medal in 1904. Their compositions are very similar and often highlight, in the center of the bouquet, one or two fleshy, white and bright flowers. A work by Pierre Camille Gontier is kept at the Musée de Saint Omer and another at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in England. Oil on canvas signed lower left. Frame dimensions 73 cm x 63 cm, chassis 55 cm x 46 cm.